Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-03-11
At A STAND.
The Question Hangs in the Balance and
Both Sides Planted SQuarely on
Their Feet.
An Interview with Working Man He
Take- Exceptions to Some Statements
Made by a Capitalist-Note> on
the situation How il j.
Viewed ia Dayton.

There is little change in the labor Nltua-
tion today, more than that matters are "aS-
ing up to great extent The Whtrlry
firms report that they are finding mechanics
in plenty to run their business. MolderS
are the scare article. This is a work re-
quiring skilled and experienced men. Al
though plenty of men can be found willing
tn undertake the work, it is not 80 easy t"
get men who can make the jobs and max"
any money out of them. This morning a
mOlder. one of the men locked out of the
Champion Malleahle. gave few points on
their side of the matter to the writer. The
speaker is known a. one of the best work
men in the shop. a sober, industrious man.
who talked quietly and directly t" tn" point,
The manufacturer whom y"u inter
viewed yesterday was evidently not
very familiar with affairs At
ths Maleable, or he would hardly made his
statement of the case So onc-Slded. There
were only about five floor molderS and three
bench men who were making biz pay, some
of them A. much or more than 800 per
HbilAlt. tUN lllt-N NtlV l'it EiHNllilN 'tA'lA
helpers. state an absolute fact when |
say that not a helper in the shop hired by
mOlder got less than l. cents per hour.
while some of them got as high as s. pei
day. with an extra tip of drlar or ;" on
payday On the other hand. the common
laborers hired by the company got l. =
cents per hour Moreover, they learned
nothing, while our helpers were learning
the business. Those few who made big
wages earned every cent they got by work
ing from twelve TO fourteen hours per day.
Moreover. they are men of long experience
and original ideas. They took contracts
for piece work. and did it SO SkillfuIly that
they made four or five dollars per day on
jobs where MYSELF or any other fairly
good man. could only make three, and
where a man who was not fairly well up in
the business couldn't make enough tG pay
his helper. When they figured up To ar
range wages paid through the whole shop
for February. it amounted To S42 per month.
There is no harder work OH earth than
foundry work, and yet in order to make
this amount we worked from six or seven
o'clock until nine O'Clock at night When
tie fUremen first asked us Ia work longer
hours a couple of months age some of the
men objected to staying there every even
ing and demurred. The result was that il
was posted on the blackboard that We were
required 10 work until nine O'Clock. If We
did not want to do this. our money was
ready for us in the office. They had habit
over there that was very much to the point.
If one of us disagreed with the Suprrim-
tendent on any point, no argument what
ever was permitted. We could either give
in 10 him at once or draw our
depended on good many contingencies
over which we had no control. If the man
who mixed our iron was at fault. or if the
furnace man gave US dull iron lirun which
has not been sufficiently meltedl our cast
ings were faulty, our days work was
spoiled. and we stood the loss Another
point before | close, your manufacturer VIII"
compared the first ten SignerS OF the pcti-
ton with the pay roll and saw that six of
them had made over 500 has created a
false impression, though I've no doubt the
mistake was made very honestly. In cir |
culating petition it was natural that they
should 60 first 10 the biggest men in the
shop, and therefore the finest and best paid
workingmen would be found among the
first names on the list.