Milford chronicle., 1883-06-01

manufacture and trade, and for the COM
forts Of home for poor and rich keep
pace with the demands in the great and
growing city hope that those who
are to have the future control Of affairs
will be clothed with a spirit Of wisdom
and knowledge akin to that which IN
spired those who conceived and execu-
ted the great work received and dedica-
ted this day."
Other speeches were made by distin-
guished gentlemen, and the scene was
one long to be remembered. In the
evening a magnificent display OF fire
works was made on the bridge piers.
woMAN's WORK.
In speaking of the engineers Of the
bridge, Congressman Hewitt IN ms
speech paid this compliment to Mrs.
Roabling. The record OF the heroes OF
the bridge would not be complete with
out reference to the unnamed men by
whose unfinching courage, in the depths
Of the caissons, and upon the suspended
wires. the work was carried on amid
storms and accidents and dangers sutti-
cient to appall the stoutest heart. 10
them we can only render the tribute
which history accords to those who
fight as privates in the battles Of Tree
dom. with all the more devotion and
patriotism because their names VIII never
he known bv the world whose benefac-
tors thev are. One name, however,
which will find no place in the official
records cannot be passed over here IN ST.
lence. In ancient times when great
works were constructed a goddess was
chosen. to whose tender care they were
dedicated. Thus the ruins OF the Aero
polls to-day recall the name OF Palias
Athene to an admiring world. In the
Middle ages the blessing OF some salnt
was invoked to protect from the rude
attacks of the barbarians and the de-
structive hand of time the building
erected bv mans devotion to the wor-
shin of God. So with this bridge VIII
ever be coupled fhe thought OF one
through the subtitle alembic of whose
brain and bv whose facile fingers COM
municatiOn was maintained between l1e
directing power of its construction. IL
is thus an everlasting monument to the
self-sacrificing devotion of woman.
THE AVERAGE OF THE WAGES.
Taking all kinds of labor on the bridge
into account, says Congressman Hewitt
in his address, the wages paid for work
on the bridge averaged $3.50 per day.
Now if this work lad been done at the
time when the pyramids We're built, with
the skill, appliances and tools then in use,
and if the money available for its execu-
tion had been limited to 1000 600, the
laborers would have received an average
Of not more than two cents per day, IN
money of the same purchasing power as
the coin of the present era. In other
words. the effect of the discoveries OF
new methods. tools and laws Of force
has been oraise the wages Of labor more
than hundred-fold in the interval which
has elapsed since the Pyramids were
built. / shall not weaken the sugges-
tive force of this statement by the COM
ments upon the astounding evidence OF
progress beyond the obvious corollary
that such state of civilization as gave
birth to the Pyramids would now be the
SIGNAL for universal bloodshed, revolution
and anarchy. I do not underestimate
the hardships borne by the labor OF this
century. They are, indeed, grleyous'
and to tighten them is, as it should be,
the chief concern Of craftsmanship.