THE CHAIRMAN. Just what is your re-
lationship to this strike? That is what
we want to get.

MR. FITZPATRICK. Chairman of the na-
tional committee for organizing iron and
steel workers.

* * *

SENATOR JONES. How did the con-
ditions in the steel mills affect labor in
other lines?

MR. FITZPATRICK. The hours are long
and the wages are small, and the treat-
ment--you can not describe the treat-
ment. Other employers meet and they
discuss the situation in the steel mills,
and they want to know why they can
not do the same in their institutions,
why they can not work 12 hours, why
they can not pay a pittance for the labor
that they use, and when our organiza-
tions would go in arbitration matters or
meet employers, the barrier that was
held up before them, the thing that they
could not get over, was "Why don't you
go to the steel mills? You get the steel
mill conditions up there, get the hours
down, and the wages up there, and
when you do that, of course we will
treat with you then." And that was the
one situation that made it absolutely im-
perative that the steel mills be organ-
ized, because it held the balance of the
labor movement back.

* * *

SENATOR WOLCOTT. Boiling it down to
figures, Mr. Fitzpatrick, the situation
was this: that 98,000 men, in round num-
bers, voted for the strike, which involved
the employment of 500,000 men?

MR. FITZPATRICK. I think it would be
somewhat different from that, because
when men in the mills saw that there
was a situation which might bring hope
into their lives and into their homes,
50,000 men joined the organization be-
tween July and the date that we com-
piled the vote. Fifty thousand, so that
we have 150,000 when the vote was
compiled.

SENATOR McKELLAR. Have any joined
since; and if so, how many, if you know?

MR. FITZPATRICK. Our report yester-
day was 340,000.

* * *

THE CHAIRMAN. Now this committee
wants to get all of that information. Now
can you give us information as to the
proportion of men in the mills who are
naturalized Americans or native-born
Americans and those who are aliens. Can
you give us any light on that?

MR. FITZPATRICK. No. We never go
into it in that way. We have to organ-
ize the employees of the steel mills.
Now, if those men were not employed
by the steel mills, we would not have
them in the organization. The fact that
they are in the steel mills--if they are

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