Show THE WORLD I OF LABOR I v But Little Doing in the Building Trades THE SKILLED WORKMEN I Unions See the Danger of Overcrowding Over-crowding now the Utah Asplialtutn Beds Would Be Operated by a Syndicate Worts of the Itcscuo 3Iission Interest i lug Local labor News One day this week a dirty frowsy bleareyed tramp called at our back door for something to eat My wife told him to take the sickle and cut down some weeds at the back of the lot while she was getting the food When she came out ten minutes afterwards to call him to his meal he had disappeared and taken the sickle with him The majority of those who call at your back door are much higher in the scale of decency than this one was but is society wholly blameless for the existence of even these lowest specimens Tramps are made not born and it is not difficult to imagine the process pro-cess of their evolutionor rather degradation degra-dation In their first stage they aro decent average av-erage citizens They are fairly industrious industri-ous but dont see the necessity of saving much of anything They smoke their pipe and take their glass of beer and while without any great moral stamina they pay their debts and would wrong no man maliciously The are probably prob-ably among the first to be thrown out of work when a depression de-pression comes as the first to strike when a difference arises with their employer After rioting for a few days they hunt around for another job But it is not as easy to find as they expected Their few dollars of savings disappear and they beat their jvay on a train to another town where they hear there is work They find no work there They have to deep wherever they can and begin to look seedy and ragged They have to apply for something to eat and are as often driven away as fed They tegin to feel bitter and are ready to helo themselves to other peoples property Driven from door to door and repulsed where they expected ex-pected to find work they begin to lose elfrespect and courage They are permitted per-mitted to sit in the saloon and are sometimes some-times invited up to the bar for a drink At last they conclude that the world owes them a living any way and they are not anxious to get work as long as they can get a free lunch and an occasional drink of beer The men aro now lazy good for nothing tramps with very little prospect that they will ever be anything else Yet had they found work in the early months of their search they would have remained decent self supporting citizens They would never been great moral lights but they would have been the fair average laborer and citizen that make up the great bulk of the population of our country By holding hold-ing society partly responsible for his existence ex-istence I do not mean that society should provide him with work But society should see that the opportunities for work are not monopolized by a comparative few That every man who desires work shall be able to find it Building Inspector Hamlin says work in the building trades is absolutely dead and the number of idle men is steadily increasing No new work is going up nor is there likely to be any for sometime some-time to come The only hope is that A something will be done lor silver and r things in that direction are certainly more encouraging than they were a week ago s It is afavorite theory with a good many people that if every man had a thorough trade and a good education every workman work-man would have work at good wages and involuntary poverty would be abolished It is suite true that a skilled workman gets Higher wages than an unskilled that an educated mechanic is paid better wages than an Ignorant one But why is this Not on account of his education or skill but because there are fewer of them The skilled engineer is no more necessary to the safe running of the train than the ignorant laborer who keeps the track in repair If engineers were as numerous as railroad nawys does anyone believe their wages would be any higher than the navvys And if only So few were willing to do the work of the navvy y wouldnt wages go away upI S up-I have never found a trade or profession which was not thought to be overcrowded over-crowded by those working in it Trades unions see the danger of overcrowding and so they try and place restrictions by limiting the number of apprentices that can be employed in any shop In the early days of the telegraph operators op-erators were considered skilled workmen and their wages were high Many learned the business and after a time operators became so numerous that wages began to be cut until today they are below those of an ordinary mechanic The same is true of typewriters stenographers and many trades To be sure we are continually contin-ually told that there is always room at the top But this is only because comparatively com-paratively few can get there If everyone every-one got there who tried theca would be as much crowding there as among the submerged portion at the foot of the ladder There is in reality only a limited demand de-mand for great skill or ability It is from the middle and lower departments of industry that the great demand for s labor must come It is not through a I change of occupation that any permanent benefit can be secured by the workers This only tends to bring down the wages of the better paid What other possible t relief can thero be lor the oversupply i and low price of labor except the opening open-ing of new opportunities for work i e How opportunities which should afford labor for thousands are monopolized by a few is shown by the proposal to lease the Utah asphaltum bed to an eastern syndicate syndi-cate Here is nearly one hundred square miles containing asphaltum gold silver lead and other and more rare minerals i If these lands were opened under the provisions of our mining laws they would afford employment for thousands of men Under the free competition thus secured there would be no restriction of production produc-tion or artificial increase of price This increased production would soon bring railroads which would make possible a still fuller development of the country Under the operations of a syndicate J however production could and probably would be limited to the lowest amount at which the highest price could be secured The demand for labor being thus limited a the wages to labor could be kept at the lowest point at which the laboring man would consent to work If this i lease is consuml ted it will be one of the greatest outrages perpetrated on Utah We ceo the same monopolization of the V oil fields in Wyoming The moHt valuable 4 valu-able of these are held by the Standard Oil company If they were held for use to increase production and give employment to labor there would be no objection to the Standard company owning them for a large company can produce more cheaply than a small concern But they are not used Wells that have been opened are now plugged up rnd these great reservoirs locked up to prevent competition and production The same 38 lareely true of the coalfields coal-fields of Wyoming The Union Pacific railway owns twenty Guiles of land on each side of their frak containing the largest and most valuable coal beds in the gtata Tlisy havo = < thus been able to monopolizevtbir coal business keep up prices check production and so limit the employment of labor ThE few private ati pri-vate companies which have been able toot to-ot > erate since the introduction of the interstate commerce i law are now getting d i a fT s the lifo nearly chocked out of them by I the scheme of the railway to lower the price of coal at the mine and increase the freight And so these companies have been obliged to reduce the number of their employes which helps to swell the number of idle men It is indeed true as declared by the national assembly of France over a hundred years ago that ignorance neglect or contempt of human rights are the sole causes of public pub-lic misfortunes and corruptions of governments gov-ernments J I paid a visit to the Rescue mission one day this week and learned some facts which may be of interest to HERALD readers Since the opening of the mission mis-sion on the 10th of last January about 8000 lunches and meals have been served to needy men Each of these meals has been paid for in cash or labor by the recipients re-cipients Nearly as many meals have been refused to men who refused to do any work for them They were chronic tramps The only work the mission provides pro-vides is sawing and splitting kindling and delivering it During its early existence I ex-istence it was under heavy expense and dependent almost entirely upon the voluntary vol-untary contributions of subscribers I Could they find a ready sale for all their I kindling it would be nearly selfsupport ing except for the rent and superintendents superintend-ents salary They hope soon to get into larger quarters so as to accoinodato the largely additional demands they expect to be made upon them this fail and winter Applicants for help are increasing increas-ing and the superintendent tells me they have nearly doubled within the i I I past ten days I The relief granted is intended to be only temporary to help a man over a tight I place Many of the applicants state that it has been their salvation their last resort re-sort before being reduced to the extremity I extrem-ity of starving begging or stealing The i great majority of the men seem to be honest temperate and anxious to work they are simply down on their luck I They comprise men from nearly all the I trades but of course the majority are unskilled un-skilled laborers record is kept of their I I trades and where they are from A large number of recent arrivals are from Colorado Col-orado and Montana Mr Hawley the manager tells me they have never lost a dollar through trusting men They have given meals to many men who have been working in the city but bad not trot their I pay These men invariably paid up for their meals when they got their money I This speaks well for human nature and proves that it is not altogether so b das d-as the preachers sometimes make out I Mr Hawley also says the contributions i are kept up remarkably well considering i con-sidering the hard times Tickets are furnished at the rate of seven for 1 to subscribers and others which I entitles the holder to employment and one meal at the mission By having these to give to applicants for relief the evils resulting from indiscriminate almsgiving almsgiv-ing are avoided The applicant has to work for what he gets and the chronic tramp who will not work is given nothing noth-ing The Rescue Mission is one of the very best mediums through which the charitably disposed can dispense help to the needy It deserves the hearty support sup-port and encouragement of every citizen of Salt Lake e 3 Reading in THE HERALD a few days ago an account of the swimming school for women and the free baths of New York I could nothelp but think what natural advantages Salt Lake has for free public baths for its people With its mineral hot springs and dear mountain streams free hot and cold baths could be established at a comparatively small cost They could be made selfsupporting by providing special accommodations for hoso who were those who were willing to pay for them Such baths would prove a great blessing to hundreds of poor people who are now only occasionally able to enjoy those healthgiving waters that were surely intended in-tended for all rather than a fortunate few to enjoy The city owns these mineral min-eral springs and it seems a pity that they Should pass from it into the hands of corporations and individuals for them to make fortunes out of This country prides itself upon its democracy demo-cracy and the fact that the whole people have a voice in the government of the country Yet the effete monarchies of the old countries look after the interests inter-ests of the common people in some directions direc-tions better than we do Every city and many of the towns of Europe have their free public baths free art galleries free libraries parks museums gymnasiums and other institutions for the amusement amuse-ment and instruction of its people Here we are so shortsighted or so absorbed in the everlasting struggle for the almighty dollar that we turn everything over into the hands of corporations We squander our public lands dispose of park reservations to land speculators lease our springs give away our water rights and I suppose sup-pose if some corporation would ask it we would give away the exclusive privilege privi-lege of bathing in Salt Lake Surely thase things are the gifts of the good God the heritage of the whole people They should be held by the people for the use of the whole people is I must confess however that the management man-agement of public business by the representatives repre-sentatives of the people in Salt Lake during the present city administration is not such as to give much confidence in the honesty and efficiency of municipal management The recent disclosures in the waterworks department the rottenness rotten-ness that was shown in the police department depart-ment the charges against the chief of the fire department which have not been cleared up to the satisfaction of everyone every-one the extravagance and mismanagement misman-agement connected with the erection of the city and county building and the suspicion that there is crooked work in connection with the gravity sewer make people feel that the city council could not be safely trusted with man more powers It seems as if too many city officials look upon a public office as a private snap out of which they should make as much as possible ThA charges and counter charges the exhibitions of spite and jealousy and the unseemly wrangling that mark nearly every meeting of the council are enough to disgust decent people I know that the workingmen and taxpayers who are not enjoying some private advantage through some city official are getting exceeding ex-ceeding tired of all this nonsense More than one Liberal has told me that I he was ready to unite with the decent men of any other party to try and elect an honest efficient and responsible city government at the next election There are plenty of such men in Salt Lake who could give us a good clean administration administra-tion whose powers could be expanded without danger There are also enough votes by an overwhelming majority If we say that such men cant be elected we had better give up the republican term of government as a failure and go back to the rule of kings If The World has collected statistics of the unemployed in New York city According Accord-ing to these the army of the idle number 36177 t divided among nearly every trade This does not embrace the unorganized and unskilled laborers of the city The following are statistics of the idle in other cities gathered by labor unions In Buffalo nearly every branch of industry in-dustry is affected A canvass of the city leads to the belief that between 15000 and 20000 men are out of employment According to a conservative estimate San Franciscos unemployed number about 5000 Many these are skilled artisans but they aro cared for by the trades unions and there is hardly any suffering The greater number however is of unskilled labor and among them is considerable distressFully distress-Fully 25000 men arc out of work in Cleveland More than 200 applied to the Bethel associated charities in one day for work Many are suffering from hunger There are 14000 employees out of work in Detroit 3000 of them stove moulders There are 5000 unemployed in Cincinnati Cincin-nati the carpenters being the most numerous nu-merous Painters come next and of the 1000 moulders union and nonunion fully onehalf are unemployed For the first time in its history the National Na-tional Tube works at McKeesport have been obliged to close down for the lack of orders Over 4000 men have been thrown out of work at that point Seven thousand operatives have been thrown out of work by the shutting down i = I I lof cotton mills at Fall River Mass and the number will be doubled within a week The shortage in currency is given as the immediate cause of the shutdown but in many instances and perhaps the majority I the poor Rtate of trade is the greater cause and the one that will most potently effect the length of time the mills will be idle Mayor Harrison says there are 200000 Idle men in Chicago but the labor unions believe he overestimates the number 40 000 or 50000 In Brooklyn there are 10000 idle persons per-sons 1500 of thorn having recently been thrown out of work by the closing of the Chelsey Jute mills I Two thousand five thundered operatives i in Passaic N J are now idle part or all of their time I Nearly all the railroads are reducing their force of men and railroad centers like Omaha Kansas City St Louis Chicago and Denver are full of idle railroad rail-road men DRESSER LABOR NOTES I t The difficulty between the brewers and I their employes mentioned last week has been peacefully adjusted to the satisfaction I satisfac-tion of both sides I The excursion of the federated trades to Garfield beach on September 4 will be j the labor excursion of the season About I X500 in prizes and money will be die tributed to the successful ones in a variety I of contests Rev 0 T Brown of the First Congregational church will give an I address on the Progress of Labor and there will bo short speeches by various label leaders The day will be lull of interest i in-terest and amusement for labor and its friends I i On Sunday evening September 3 Rev C T Brown will give a sermon on The Dignity of Labor n in the First Congregational Con-gregational church which the labor organizations will attend in a body Rev Mr Brown is a live preacher and will undoubtedly give an interesting sermon it R G Sleater general organizer of the Federated Trades is in receipt of a letter from President Samuel Gompers regarding regard-ing the silver convention recently held in Chicago Writing of the prospects of silver he says Everything depends upon the maintenance main-tenance of the ranks of our trades unions unbroken In the same measure as we prove ourselves true to the cause of unionismin the same ratio as we standby stand-by the flag of our organizations will our success be measured Nothing could prove more disastrous to the interests of j the wage earning classes of our country than to break ranks and thus prove an easy prey to the avarice of the wealth possessors whether they be private individuals in-dividuals or corporate institutions And now General Master Workman T V Powderley denies that he is going to resign from his position D |