Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-08
IN THE CITY,
Many Open Trenches for
Gable and Gas Lines.
NO FOREMEN AVAILABLE.
Plenty Of Luborers Who Want Work, but
None of Them Competent to Act as Gang
Bosses-Loss to Contractors and Dan.
ger TO the Public IL the Result.

The Johnstown disaster has crippled all the
building interests in this city. Nearly all the
! work, particularly on the streets, has come to
standstill, and throughout the entire city
bitches and excavations have been left open,
and are constant menace to belated pedestri-
ans. This is mainly due to the fact that the
vast majority of laborers have been called off
and have been sent to Johnstown. and while
there are still hundreds of laborers in the city,
there are no foremen here competent to take
charge Of big gangs of men. and the work must
necessarily lie at standstill. Particularly is
this true with the parties having in charge the
building of the various cable roads.
viii Cost Many Dollars.
The work is simply lying dormant and is
costing its contractors hundreds Of dollars,
and will continue to do SO as long as the thing
lasts. In addition to this there is ditch al
most two miles in length, which has been made
for the laying of the 30-inch main of the Equi-
table Gas Company. 1t is all open, and while
there are watchmen and red lanterns in abund-
ance, still it is a source of constant terror to
the contractors and others, who fear that some
one may yet be seriously injured by falling in
A DISPATCH reporter yesterday met James
Booth, of the firm of Booth q Finn. They are
doubtless the largest contractors IN the CITY,
and consequently the heaviest losers. Mr..
Booth said: ut has placed us in very disa-
greeable position and is of great deal of ex-
pense to u.s. 1t has taken all the qualified
foremen we had, fully 25 or 30 of them,
This includes the Superintendent of the trac-
tion force, and with but one exception all the
foremen who are at all familiar with that class
of work. Our greatest trouble is to get men
who are capable of acting as gang bosses. We
can get any number of men, but can get none
to take charge of them. Now, here is our
Equitable gas main work lying idle, and it is
In a Dangerous Condition.
mainly on account of the immense length of
the ditch lying open. All our men have stopped
work on the ditch and the men we had on the
Central Traction job; and besides these there
were three oD four gangs of men on other
things. We had two gangs at work on Wy!ie
avenue, one on High street and one on the
crusher on Sixth avenue. hope to have
gang of men at work on High street tomorrow,
and get that street in shape that VIII make II
passable. AS to the Equitable ditch, we have
both gas and water mains on either side of us
there. and while we keep watchmen there all
the time, still we are fearful that somebody
will get hurt
Hunting for Foremen.
81 am trying hard to get suitable men to act
as foremen, and as soon as do will send
them to Johnstown and bring the other men
back here. won't move them, however, until
know that they can be spared. We are
pestered to death every day by the crowds Of
men who want work, but we cannot use them.
There is any number of them who are willing
to volunteer for the 81 a day and grub. but they
seem to lose sight of the fact that they must
work when they get there.
II learned to-day that one of our men was
injured very severely up there to-day. His
name is William O'Brjen. He is stranger
here, and has q wife and two children, whom
he wants to 60 to him. BE is hurt severely but
the firm are unable to locate his family, and he
has not sent the address,"