2

CONTRACT~-DAY LABOR

 

 

A Comparison of the. Two ion
Municipal Wcrks.

 

By J. R. Commons, Professor of Socralogy,
Syracuse University.

 

Vii.

Skilled labor, both in London and Den-
ver is paid for at the trade union prices.
This means, of course, the wages agreed
upon by the unions with private employ-
.ers of the locality.

In public employment. as far as hours
and wages are concerned, common labor,
of course, gains more relatively than
organized labor. In Denver, the hours
of labor were uniformly eight for both
skilled and unskilled, while under con-
tractors it had been eight for skilled and
ten for unskilled. The wages, too. of the
unskilled laborers on the basis of time
were 30 per cent higher than the current
demoralized wages, and from 5 to 30 per
cent-higher than those paid by previous
contractors on the same work before the
depression set in. \Vhereas contractors
paid for common labor $1.75 a day of ten
hours, the city paid for the greater part
of such work 81.75 a. day of eight hours,
and about one—sixth of this labor was
paid $2 a day of eight hours.

On the other ,hand, skilled labor was
not paid as high as had been by private
contractors. Foremen whom the city
paid $3.33 for eight hours had received
310 for eight hours from contractors
three years before. Stone ma’sons who
received 84 had received $7. Apparently
the effect of municipal employment is to
more nearly equalize the earnings of all
laborers by raising the minimum of the
lowest and depressing the maximum of
the highest. At the 'same time it must
be remembered that in both the day labor
.and the contract system the union rate
was paid, and that if the union rate had
been higher at the time of the depression
the city would have paid higher than it
did. The city actually paid two and
two-and-a-half times as much for skilled
as for unskilled labor.

These facts largely explain the dispro-
portion shown above between the saving
.of 25 per cent. by day labor on the Den—
ver sewer, and the excess of 4.25 per cent.
on the VVoburn sewers. The Denver
sewer was brick construction, and un-
skilled labor constituted but 17.7 per
cent. of the total expense. (Total cost.
section 1, $49,251, unskilled labor. 89,-
788.55). Consequently an increase of 28
per cent. in the day wages of that class
of workmen represented an increase of
[only 4 per cent. in the cost of the entire
undertaking. But the Woburn sewers
were pipe, and the unskilled labor was 65
per cent. of the total cost, so that an in-
-crease of 30 per cent. in wages stood for
an increase of 19 per cent. in the total
expense. In comparing the cost of con-
tract and day work, the character of the
construction and the relative employ-
ment of skilled and unskilled laborers
must always be carefully considered.

The Massachusetts report shows (pp.
.3l-42) that in practicallyr all the cities
which furnish information the wages in
city employment are considerably higher
than that in the employment of contraco
tors. Where cities like Boston pay 82
per day of nine hours, contractors pay

$1.25 and $1.30 for ten hours. lnIndiana-

polls the city pays $1.40 for eight hours,
contractors $1.25 to $1.75 for ten hours.
Only in a few cities like Buffalo and
Philadelphia, where city ordinance re-
quires contractors to pay the same rate
as does the city. are the wages the same.
Itis believed, however, says the report,
that “contract wages reported are only
approximately correct and in all pro-
bability exceed the actual rates paid,”
seeing that contractors are “not obliged
to disclose the rate of wages paid, and if
these wages are very low, it is natural
that their should be a disinclination on
the part of contractors to answer in-
quiries upon the subject. In some cases
of public contract work it is claimed that
wages ostensibly paid the laborers are
not finally paid in full" (p. 35).

In Syracuse, city employment is $1.50
.a day for eight and one-half hours, while
private contractors, by evading the eight
hour law and contracting for labor by
the hour instead of by the day, are able
to get common labor at $1.25 for ten
hours, and very often at $1 per day.

These higher wages paid to rom'dent
labor, says the Massachusetts report,
place the city at a disadvantage, judged
from a purely financial point of view.
“The city is obliged to pay from 25 to 40
per cent. higher wages in many instances,

and obtains therefore an hour’s lam
wor ” (p. 42). “There canbe no ques—
tion,” says Mr. H. H. Carter, formerly
superintendent of streets in Boston, “so
far as ordinary work in general is con-
cerned, that the contractor can hire men
:for 81.25 to $1.30 a day and do work for

THE VOICE, SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1897.

 

less than the municipal authorities who
pay 3?. a day.” Mr. Perkins. of the
State Highway commission. asserts that
“there is not a town in Massachusetts at
the present time, I suppose, that would
pay $1.% (Le. as low as that), and some
of the contractors pay ninety cents a day.
There isn’t a town that we know of so far
that is paying less than $1.50 to $2 a.
day” (p. 39).

Regarding these higher wages and
shorter hours in city employment two
questions must be answered : First, are
high wages and short working day com-
pensated by the greater energy and pro-
ductive power on the part of the laborers,
and by the saving of the profit which
would otherwise go to the contractor;
and, second. can the city afford to have
its citizens compelled to work for less
than a fair American wage ?

The first question will be considered
here, and the second towards the close of
this paper. We have already shown that
apart from politics the money cost of the
day labor system, taking all the factors
into account, is in most cases no« more,
or even less, than the contract system.
Higher wages, within fair limits, bring
increased efficiency. The city engineer
of Brockton said (p. 39): “Take able—
bodied men, and I would be willing to
pay over $2 for some of them, because
they are worth it. I would be willing to
make a standard of $2 a day, and if I had
my way here I would use men and give
them what I thought they were worth.
If a man is worth $3 a day I would give
him that.”

It would appear from the standpoint
of the administration that the best re-
sults are received not by a fixed rate of
wages for a given class of labor, establish-
ed by ordinance or law, but by a fixed
minimum above which the wages to be
paid are ‘ef t to the discretion of the de-
partment chiefs. “In Springfield.” says
the superintendent of srreets, “we com-
mence with 81.50 as a standard, and we
try, so far as is safe, to pay a man what
he is worth. Some of the men get $1.60,
$1.65, $1.75, and so on.”

It would be necessary to establish a
minimum by law or ordinance, else the
conditions of public work and ’ wages
would be crowded down. as was formerly
the case in London and English cities,
to the level of private competitive work.

I do not maintain, taking the rate of
wages into account, that in all cases the
day labor system is cheaper to the city
from anarrow financial point of view.
The opinions of experts before the Massa-
chusetts board generally agree that. with
the same wages the city can do its work
cheaper than contractors. But many of
them hold that with higher wages the
cost would be greater. (It must be re-
membered, however. that in Massachu-
setts there is a much greater difference
between municipal wages and contract
wages than in other States.) Notwith.
standing the evidence already presented
in this paper showing the cheaper cost
of construction by the city it must be
allowed that exceptions will occur where
the higher wages of city employment
would overbalance its greater economies.
Such an outcome, however, would only
occur in a city like Boston where the
city’s wages are nearly double the
amount paid by contractors. Usually it
would not be expected that city employ-
ment would raise the lowest class of
wages more than 50 per cent., and with
such an increase occurring only with a
small proportion of the entire expense of
public work the aggregate increase would
be but slight. For example, in the Den-
ver sewer construction whose total cost
was $49,261 unskilled laborers and help-
ers were employed only to the extent of
$9,788.55, the balance being paid for
material and skilled labor. The un-
skilled labor incurred, therefore, but 17.7
percent. of the total expense, and the
increase of 30 per cent. in the day wages
of that class of workmen caused there-
fore an increase of only 4 per cent. in the
cost of the entire undertaking. .

This leads us to the second of the ques-
tions indicated above. Can the city
afford tohave its citizens compelled to
work for less than a fair American
wage? The answerto this question in~
volves two considerations; first, regularity
of employment, and second, the standard
of living.

Far more important to workingmen of

hours is regularity of employment. It
is in this particular that the strongest
claims can be made for the day labor
system. Says Mr. \Vebb, of the London
County Council (Testimony before the
Royal Commission, 4393) ‘fThe munici-
pality can arrange its work so as to dove-
tail in with the experienced irregularity
of private employment; that is to say,
that they should endeavor, as far as pos-
sible, to get all their work done in the
winter, because other employers for vari-
ous reasons, diminish the amount of
work that is done in the winter. The
expense is not so great at that time when
everyoneelseisnottrying to have the

 

same work done. And, indeed, in ex.

all classes than high wages and short'

treme lack of employment, instead of
dispensing charity the city ought to
anticipate the work which it wants
done.”

John Burns, also a member of the Lon-
don County Council, said in a Denver
interview regarding the London experi-
ence, (Municipality and County, Jam.
1395. P- 79): “All our work is done by
day labor. We have no contract system
and we find this plan works admirably in
adjusting the unemployed-labor problem.
The method employed in London has
done much to settle labor questions. As
you all know, in the summer time, when
climatic conditions are most favorable,
most of the private building and con-
struction work is done, and the bulk of
laboring men are employed. \Vhen
winter sets in, our climate being some-
what milder than yours, we start our
public improvements, and to the men
who have been thrown out of work by
the cessation of private works we give
employment, thus furnishing work for
practically the entire year. Instead of
giving charityto a man, we give him
work, and if he will not work, he is fit
only for the jail or the lunatic asylurn.”

In Denver the public sewer construc-
tion was undertaken primarily to furnish
work for the unemployed in winter, and
its succem financially to the city was
only secondary to its benefits to the
working people. It served to keep up
wages, and to provide a living at a time
when both industrial panic and winter
weather were making the condition of
the laborers intolerable.

 

To be continued.

 

New York Cloakmakers.
The cloakmakers of New York City

are making preparations for a. strike.
At present a few of the cloakmakers

are making all the money and the rest
are nearly Starving. One of the, cloak-
makers, who figured in the lookout of
1888, said to a N ew York reporter :

"The business is slipping back to where
it was before 1888. For ten years before
that time crafty men came to this coun-
try from Russian Poland and began to
work as cloakmakers. They found after
working for a while that they had more
work than they could do. Then they
watched when a ship’s load of immi-
grants came and offered to board coun-
trymen of theirs free until they got
work. This apparent act of charity was
accepted eagerly and their victims lived
with them and were asked to help them
by sewing. The victims did so and the
cloakmakers made money out of them.
After a while they would give their dupes
a dollar or so a week while they them-
selves wouldbe earning $70 and $75 a
week. Their victims knew nothing of
the language of the country and could
not help themselves.

“After a while the cloakmakers, who
came to be known as sweaters. used to
send agents when vessels arrived to decoy
victims to their wretched shops. Often
the victims of‘ the sweaters ate, drank
and slept in the room where he worked,
sleeping on piles of clothing. This was
the origin of the genuine sweating sys-
tem which has been .killed during the
last five or six years, but which, if pres-
ent conditions last, is liable to come in

again.”

 

 

For Non-Unionists to Ponder.

 

Do you know that when wages are re-
duced in times of panics they never rise
again among unorganized workers ?

Do you know that each succeeding
panic has left the wages of the unorgan-
ized workers smaller than they were be-
fore?

Do you know that in spite of all panics
the wages of organized labor have stead-
ily advanced and the hours of labor
shortened P

Do you know that if the wage-earners
were all organized, panics would be less
frequent and less severe ?

Do you know the recent cut in your
wages will never be recovered until you
organize ?

Do you know the long hours of labor
lessen your pay ? How will you increase
it?

Do you know it is a duty you owe your
family and fellow craftsmen to join the
union of your craft ?

Do you know the longer you delay
joining the union of your craft the longer
you will be in bettering our present con-
dition, shortening our hours of labor per
day, and increasing our pay.-—St. Paul
Union advocate.

The Difference.
Municipal government in Glasgow is
strong enough to own and run the street
railways perfectly well, and. on the other
hand, it is strong enough to make
thoroughly advantageous bargains with
contractors and private companies. But
in the United States the scandals and
difiiculties attendant upon the municipal

 

 

ownemhip of, let us say, lightning plants
5

 

and

 

A FEW MORE Ag.
Light Summer 5

_-!.l.,2-_

(.11le

gs
Paintings Left.

 

CALL AND SEE....

would not be as great as those involved
in the making of bargains between muni-
cipal governments and the gas trusts and
illumination companies, and in the or
ercise of an alleged public control.—-Dr.
Albert Shaw.

 

The Struggle in Germany.

 

The eyes of the world are fixed on the
struggle going on in Germany between
the emperor and the rising tide of Ger-
man Democracy. It is no holiday mat
ter, no ordinary political move that is so
agitating the German people, and giving
matter to think of for the politicians of
Europe. It is a contest of a serious na-
ture, long foreseen, but which might
have been averted, or at least softened,
had there been a difi‘erent person on the
German throne from the young, rash,
insolent autocrat who seems to delight in
showing the world how great is his con-
tempt and hatred for the ideas of liberty.
The present German emperor was born
to wreck monarchy in Germany, for
though monarchy may even outlast him,
it will be monarchy shorn of its most
characteristic features, and reduced to a
very small and pale copy of the original.

The particun': question which is now
setting Kaiser ifgyc Beichstag by the ears
is as to whetleylme German people shall
in political affairs have the right of free
combination. One can belong in Ger-
many to any single political society, but
no one society can federate or corres-
pond with any other society. The Prus-
sian parliament, which is elected on a
narrow suffrage, has passed a very bad
bill, which not only perpetuates that, but
which provides some rigid penal ties, and
which also forbids all min‘ors to attend
any political meetings. Thus all hope of
the peaceful evolution of Democracy in
Germany is rendered null and void by
this atrocious legislation, which has pro-
ceeded from the emperor himself, and for
which even his reactionary ministers do
not like to share the responsibility. To
this action of the Prussian parliament
the German parliament, known as the
reichstag, and which is elected by uni-
versal suffrage. replied by bringing in
and passing a bill granting freedom of
political combination toall persons in the
German empire. Thus the reichstag
gave exactly what the Prussian parliav
ment or laudtag refused. This is the
exact question under discussion.

. But the quarrel goes even deeper than
that. Like our own battle about the ship
money in the time of Charles 1., this bat-
tle in Germany is being waged really to
decide whether the emperor shall be an
absolute ruler or not. The particular
measures under discussion in both cases
may be said to have been the immediate,
but not the real and ultimate, cause of
the struggle. The question in both Eng-
land in the seventeenth, and Germany

democracy is to rule or autocracy, and
the whole world will watch with eager-
ness the outcome of the contest. Ger-
many has, under the present kaiser, been
actually going back. Harsh and odious
laws are harshly enforced; even the old
freedom of the great German universities
is threatened. The meddlosome royal
puppy in Berlin wants to make every-
thing over again on his own pattern, and
he is not disposed to leave anyone alone.
Dare to say one word of criticism on him
and you are immediately hauled 05 to
some tribunal and, after a sham trial, are
sent to meditate in prison 'for some
months, or evbn years, on the folly and
tyranny of a man who can suppose that
a great and intelligent nation like Ger-
many can or will forever put up with
such nonsense.

W’hile the Germans are the best edu-
cated and most intelligent of the leading
nations of the world, they have been, up
to our times, politically infants, owing to
causes which we have no space to enu-
merate. Butin proportion as the Ger-
mans developed a great industry, as is
the case now, their political ideas ex-
panded. and this expansion of ideas was
aided by the formatii‘n of the German
Empire, as well as by the literature and
philosophy of Germany. So that the
nation has, asit were, burst out all at
once into full-blown political activity.
A wise ruler would have seen that this
was the case, and would not have tried to
keep the nation in leading string! .when
hefimeforthatsortofthing had gone

 

t

in the nineteenth, centuries is whether.

Don't waste away wearing heavy clothes this hot weather, but

PEACE s C 0., Tailors,\

 

by for ever. But Kaiser Wilhelm is very
far from being a wise man. and he has,
instead of aiding an inevitable expansion,
done his best to prevent it, so that what
might have been a peaceful evolution is
now in danger of bursting all bounds,
like the F reuch revolution, and over-
spreading Europe. Nobody who knows
the facts can doubt that a revolution in
Germany would be an astounding event
of the first magnitude, which would lead
to an utter change in the general politics
of Europe, for it would not be confined to
Germany, and nobody can tell what
might happen before the waves of the
revolution were Spent. From the revolu-
tionary point of view, the Emperor‘s con-
duct is “good business,” but to those who
wish to see change, but peaceful change,
it is the very quintessence of human
folly. The stupid Conservative party of
Germany follows the Kaiser, but among
sensible men like Herr Richter, whose
remarkable speech was reported in full in
most of the German papers, the imperial
policy is looked upon as being dangerous
in the extreme.

The Germans are as a rule a quiet peo-
ple, and a little too patient, from our
point of view. But it is precisely such
people who, when roused, are the most
terrible, and now that the Germans are
so developed politically that the Reich-
stag is able to stand forth as a centre of
resistance to the Kaiser, just as the Bug-
lish parliament stood out as against the
insane demands of Charles I, we may ex-
pect serious times in Germany. The
good wishes of all Democrats in this
country will go out to those who are
fighting the battle of freedom of speech
and of combination in the old Father-
land. May the Hohenzollern despot be
beaten to the ground and the German
peoplebedelivered from the grip of an
intolerable rule i—Reynold’s Newspaper.

Restriction of Immigration.

 

For some time past the American
Federation of Labor have been urging
the United States congress to pass stricter
immigration laws. The above order, to
test the feeling of organized labor on
the matter, have issued the following
list of questions. All the unions in the
United States will vote on the matter :

1. Does your organization favor amend-
ing the laws of the United States to
restrict immigration more than it is now
restricted ?

2. Does your organization favor a pro-
vision in the law guarding against
criminal and pauper elements entering
into the United States ?

3. Should the foreign consular service
and ourimmigration department be en-
trusted with greater powers to enforce
immigration laws ?

4.. Should the violation of the Alien
Contract Labor law by employers be
punishable by imprisonment?

5. Should the steamship companies be
held responsible, for a term of years for
the character of their passengers ?

6. Should a. stricter civil and educa-
tional test be enforced as to qualification
for naturalization ?

7. Should every immigrant be com-
pelled to declare his intention to become
a citizen of the United States ?

’What other provision does your organ-
ization favor and suggest, if any, to
further the restriction of immigration ?

Our readers might well ponder on these
questlons, as they are vital questions in
Canada as well as in the United States.

The Dull Wits.

Its Usefulness.—Landlady —- In what
way, Mr. Jones, do you think hypnotism
could be used in my line?

Boarder—Why, a man might be led to
imagine that he had no cause for com-
plaint.

landlady—Ah! And, while under the
spell he might pay arrears of board ?

Not Ambitious.——Weary Walker—Pee
glad I don't live in England.

Tired Traveller—Why ?

W. W.—-De queen might make me a
“Companion of the Bath.”

Discretion—“W’hy is it that you never
tease Annie the way you do your other
sister.”

“Because I have physical objections to

tickling a powder magazine with a
match.”

 

 

 

A. Bemedy.-—“My leg aches terribly.”
“Why don’t you have it pulled 7’”