Morning journal and courier., 1886-04-07
TALKS ABOUT TOWN.

Back From the Great West-What n
 Business Man Says-Bad Effects on
 Business = A Factory Enlargement
 Given Up-What Boss Builder Says
 What Architects Said - Building
 Contracts Given Up Carpenters'
 Wages.
 Said a partner in a manufacturing concern
 in this city which employs about one hun
 dred and twenty hands, who has just return
 ed from an extensive western trip on bus
 mess: I found everywhere that business
 was feeling the effects of the labor troubles.
 Merchants hesitated to buy goods and are
 buying much less than they had expected to
 buy. This feeling is widespread. It takes
 in all the large cities of the West. In conse-
 quence manufacturers feel it. They receive
 less orders and consequently work in the shops is dull Now, what I have said tells
 the story in nutshell. If I had time I could specify case after case showing where the effect of the present industrial agitation and trouble is hurting business. In our own shop our outlook for the spring trade was that it would be booming. But the setback to business is such that we shall do well if we keep our present force of hands busy. We had thought to enlarge our shops considera- l ply this spring in view of what appeared to l be busy season at hand, but that project is abandoned. Of course it is generally appar- ent to every thinking man that the effect up on business would be bad. I am not now discussing the pros and cons of the labor question. It is plain to be seen that this | question is getting an airing such as 1t | probably has never before had in this coun- \ try and the ventilation of the question will do good in the end.
 Said prominent gentleman: I have faith | in our country and it's future, just as Henry Ward Beecher does and several other indi- viduals of note who have ideas and brains I and are satisfied that the spirit of resistance | to tyranny, whether the tyranny of labor or | the tyranny of capital, is not yet extinct in ! the American people. l am right glad to see ! the stand the COURIER has taken. The de l mand upon it is simply infamous, and public opinios in the matter is unquest1onabiy to the same effect.
 Said & well known prominent builder yes- | terday: have personal knowledge of several building projects that will be indefinitely 1 postponed this spring owing to the advance | ment or demand for an advance of wages. The expense of building will be considerably | larger with an increase of pay for carpenters, | naasons and painters. Of course if the men can get $5 day and building can go on just the same I should be glad. But the result l will be that building operations will be as l "dull as hoe." And moreover let me ask | who are the men who pay the house rent! | They are in nine cases out of ten almost men \ 1 or fifteen per cent or twenty per cent. more l to build, rents will increase. So the poor man pays after all. He gets more wages and l he pays higher house rent. Of course just ! now the cry is for more wages and plain 1 facts are passed by, but if houses cost more to build fewer houses will be built, or else the l price of rents will be higher and the laboring | man again in the long run has to pay for 1t. ! I think also that building will be very dull ! thio year. It looks so.
 In consequence of what the boss builder
 said COURIER reporter visited some of the architects They corroborated what was said as to building projects being given up. Mr. | R. G. Russell mentioned two building pro- l jects for which he was to have made plans, but which, owing to the labor troubles, had been indefinitely postponed. Other builders | made similar statements.
 | A builder said: We are finishing up our | contracts in hand, and what comes after that we don't know. It looks as if we would have ! to lie still after the 1st of May.
 | Said skilled carpenter: There is one ] thing that can be done improvement in I our vocation. Let the bosses decide upon a | gradation of the men, so that & frst-class ' man shall get say $3 or more day,a second | class man $2. 50 and new recruit $2. Peter ! McGuire was right when he said to the car penters that raw green hands come here from ' the country with saw and chisel and step I into equally as good pay as man who is l skilled in the business and thoroug gh work man. This is an item which your paper might speak about.