The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-02-04 00:00:00

A TITLED NAVVY.

Sir Charles Adam writes: I have often thought
that some experience of labour as a labouring man
among labouring Men, is an aid to the under-
standing of the social and economic questions
of the present time; this idea was present to
my mind when one day last summer at a
western city of the United States, which I was
visiting on legal business, I booked myself at one of
the employment offices as a railroad labourer. The
Labour Agencies or employment offices, which are
to be found in the Central and Western States form a
convenient means of bringing unskilled labourers into
relations with employers; they have no connection
with the State Governments, but are maintained by
speculative individuals, who manage to obtain, or
hear of, orders for men from railroad companies and
other large employers, and who derive their profits
from a fee of one or two dollars, which they exact
from each person who applies for particulars of the
work at their disposal. An idea of their methods
may be gathered from the following specimen of a
printed hand-bill which, a few days previously, had
been handed to me at an office in a Minnesota city:
Wanted, 125 Men for Company Work in South-
Western lowa, Missouri, and Kansas. 1.75 dols. per
Day. Board 3.50 dols per Week. Free Faro. Free
Fare. We go through with this Crew. Get your Pass
at once.

50 Men for Montana. Teamsters and Labourers.
Free Fare.

CO Men for Company Work, -. Osakis, Minn. Free
Fare.

10 Teamsters and Labourers for Alexandria, Minn.
25 Men for Superior, Wis., near Duluth. Free
Fare.

75 Men for Galena, 111. Men for Watertown, D.T.,
and for Park River, D.T. 100 Men near the City. 10
other Orders.

I very nearly became one of the "75 men for
Galena," whom this office was ready to engage, but
eventually decided to defer railroading experiments
until a later period of my journey.
Company work" is work done for railroad or
other companies, always considered easier task-
masters than railroad contractors and private indi-
viduals generally. Usually the men are sent off
(with free railroad passes) to their destinations day
by day as they engage, but occasionally a gang is
personally conducted by a representative of the em-
ployment office. It is to this latter mode of proce-
dure that the expression "We go through with this
crew "refers.

Next morning, arrayed in my working clothes, I
started by the first train for the scene of my labours,
about 100 miles distant. Among the passengers on
the cars I met three other men, two Irishmen and a
Swede, booked for the same work as myself.
The train' for the purpose of setting us four down
was stopped at a spot where the branch on which we
were to work diverged from the main track. Here
the Swede left us; he had no intention of railroad-
ing, but had engaged for the sake of obtaining a free
railway pass to his destination, a not uncommon
trick. However, before we reached the place, about
two miles off, where our gang was employed, we had
made up for his desertion by picking up a Transyl-
vanian Saxon who was looking for work.

The gang numbered about 30. After answering
some questions about our antecedents (the
amateur labourer will be prepared for this), and
after asking some about the work, he pro.
ceeded to the spot where the boarding - cars
were standing. These were ordinary freight-cars;
some used as kitchen, dining-room, and boarding-
boss's residence, whilst two, between which the gang
was divided, were fitted up for sleeping purposes
with wooden bunks in two tiers; each bunk was sup-
posed to be furnished with a straw mattress, straw
pillow, sheets, and a quilt. The bedding had
once been white, but was now of a nondescript
colour. Boarding-cars are looked after by a " board-
ing-boss," who contracts with the railroad company
to board the men at a fixed rate. In our case the
charge was 3.75 dols. (15s. 6d.) a head per week.
This board-money is deducted by the company at pay
day from each man's wages. We were paid at the
rate of 1.50 dols. (6s. 3d.) a day. There were three
meals--breakfast at half-past six, dinner at twelve
(when we left off work till one), and supper at six.
The menus of all three were similar—tea and coffee
without milk, bread, butter, porridge, beef or bacon,
potatoes, haricot beans, pie, kc. ; everything ad
libitum, and everything, except perhaps the meat, of
excellent quality. -- - _
_ _ _ _ _

At seven o'clOck, after breakfast, our boss (who was
civil, as have been all my American bosses) called us
to work. Our labour on that day was concerned
chiefly with" ties" (sleepers). We took out, or altered
the position of old, and put in new ones, the greater
part of the work being done with the shovel. I had
some weeks previously appeared for a few days in
the character of a harvest labourer on a farm in
Manitoba, and, although my experiences there were
pleasant, they enabled me to appreciate the distinction
between work for a private employer and" company
work." I found that my present occupation, although
not light to an untrained man, and directed by a boss
who understood his duties, did not exact such hard
work as do some of the operations connected with
harvesting and threshing on a farm. The weather
was fine, but hot, and a man was told off to bring pails
of water to quench our thirst at intervals all day.
Our twelve hours' toil over, we waited by the camp-
fire for the locomotive, which came at midnight and
whirled us away to fresh scenes such I have de-
scribed.