St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-09-21
"CHEAP RAFSCALLIONS.n
Grend Secretary Mcclure Addresses
Four lfiunared Carpenters and
JOiners.

Grend Secretary McEuire Addresses
Four lEiundred Carpenters and
JOiners.
P. j. MCGUIRE, of Cleveland, O.. grand
secretary Of the Brotherhood of Carpenters
and JoinerS. lectured last evening in Turner
hall on the labor question. The hall was
fairly well filled, there being between
800 and 400 people present, no
ladies being included. 1t was nearly
$50 o'clock before the meeting was opened.
Al this time w. T. Jordan, president of
the American Union of Carpenters and
JOners, a. J. Metzgar, secretary: Chris
Galfke, president of the German Union of
Carpenters and JoinerS; Mic ZelZer, vice
president; Mr.. Pickard, representing the
carpenters of Minneapolis, 2. j. Mcclure.
the speaker of the evening, and John P
McGaughey, eX-diStrict master workman
Knights OF Labor, and number of others
took seats upon the stage. Mr.. Jordan
called the meeting to order and introduced
Mr.. Mcclure, who spoke for an hour and
half quite rapidly. The principal points in
his address were as follows:
AvAUNT, CHEAP BOSSES.
have not been in your city for eight years,
and find The movement here among carpen-
s6fS ana toners 10 De III q very healthy con-
1itiOn. | feel that it is good to meet you face
20 face and it is always good for general Of
ieers to meet the members. In 1854 and
again in 1856 an attempt was made to main
,ain national organization. but in 1881 we
acid our first convention. | had been in the
Knights OF Labor since 1872, and thought it
time to 10 something for my own trade. |
saw attempts made to degrade the trade, to
break down day work and institute piece work,
that contract convict labor was interfering
with us, that the brieklayers were getting
more pay for fewer hours work. We have
now Increased to 2l6 unions, with over 10000
members. In eighteen cities of the United
States we work only eight hours day and
are paid weekly in large number OF places.
1t used to be so that q man only asked for
job; he did not ask for wages Now he sets
his price, aud why should not labor fix its
price. as the grocer or contractor does? In
order to stand by the fair bosses In the trade,
who want to stand by the specifications, it is
necessary to establish a price TO prevent
them from employing the cheap rapscallions
in the business. In the spring, after you
have loafed ali winter, the work begins to get
lively; men come walking in from the coun-
try, with saw and Ratchet done up in
apaper and want job backing joists or lay
ing floor. which is all they know how to do.
After few months, when they have made
you walk the streets, they jump their board
bill and go back to the country 10 spend their
money, many ABUSES nave come into the
trade. You Old men remember when you
used to work eleven months in the ear, and
ell mouldings, windOw-frames and sashes
were made by hand, but now you work eight
or nine months in the ear. Then there were
regular apprentices to the business. Now
bosses have no apprentices, because they
have no shops, for the shops are replaced by
planiEg mills filled with all sorts of machinery
We live in cheap age. but labor should
never be cheap to the detriment of mans
family. Now the contractors cut their
figures so low that they come out of the little
end of the horn, or those we call Jim Crow
contractors draw their pay and don't pay
their help. Now, why can bricklayers and
stonecutters get more than the carpenters do?
Is there more skill required? Are more tools
required? No. Why, in some cities the hod-
carriers get more than the carpenters get in
this city. The reason is that the bricklayers
have more sand than the carpenters, and
more Of the glue of union. Only stand BY the
union and fix scale of wages. If q man is
not worth the scale fixed by the union, he has
no business in the trade. But they say
those poor devils have got to live. Well, let
them
LIVE AND BE ID,
but not at our expense. We must stop this
manufacturing carpenters by the wholesale.
Now don't come here to blame the boss, but
to blame some of you. There are men who
for twenty-five cents more day will boss the
about laying out work. Now what you know
keep to yourselves as much as possible, come
into to the union and stand as union men.
Every boss who favors low wages is cutting
his own throat, for it favors more COMPETE
ton and increases the bosses. We favor hay
ing the bosses organize a union of their own
and that committees from their union and
committees from our union come together
and fix the scale of wages every season and
live up to it honestly. There will be strikes
as long as the bosses treat the men with con-
tempt and blaekmail their leaders. As soon
as the unions get strong, the employers make
concession to the men and give them a share
of the profits The eight-hour law Is a dead
letter on the United States law books If
there is any law against workiugmen, how
quick they win 1nforce it, but if there is any
law in favor Of the laborer they will
wait until election time and len promise to
do it. There are some in your midst who
promised to vote against convict labor at the
last legislature. Some of them kept their
pledges and should oe stood by nobly. But if
any one was identified with the convict labor
ring of the state of Minnesota he should be
downed at the polls. Every man who comes
TO this country Of his own free will should be
allowed to come, but he who comes under
contract of cheap labor is a slave, and should
be semi back.
The speaker closed with history of the
bavcott, which he claimed to be as old as