St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-04-06
PIGS IN The CLOVER.
The Puzzle Which Amused
Aldermanic Little Boys
Yesterday.
Many Things Are Discussed,
but Few of Them Settled
Definitely.
Paid Preaching for the Work.
house Prisoners Creates
Much Talk.
Aldermen Getting on Record
on the Days Work
Question.

The city council yesterday held pro-
tracted session. Religion, politics and
the labor question were the fruitful
topics which furnished material for the
municipal debating society. The com
mittee on water works reported in favor
of fixing the wages of day laborers in
the water department at $l.65
per day, and Aid. Parry moved
to amend by making it s1.75. Aid. Bar
rows, of the committee, making the re-
port said he thought the wages paid
by the city should be regu-
lated by the law of supply and demand,
and didn't believe in paying very much
more than men get who are en-
plOyed by private citizens. He thought
it an injustice to laboring men who pay
taxes to make them pay the city's en-
getting. AID. MelOy SAID he thought
81 rs was fair wages, and he had not
signed the report on that account.
Aid. Parry said that the money saved
by cutting down the wages was paid
out again through the poor department.
Aid. FuttZ thought there should be a
little leeway, so that men who did the
best work might get the most pay.
Aid. Potter thought such an arrange
ment as Aid. FuttZ suggested would
open the way for favOritiSm that
would surely cause trouble.
Aid. Vandewaker didn't think it was
good thing to place in hands of fore
men power sure to be employed for
political advantage.
Aid. Grimes pulled out the plug and
let himself run awhile in favor of S1.65
a day.
Aid. Sterling talked quite a while
and said several things, and said he be-
lieved in hiring as cheap as other peo-
pie. and thought that Sligo, Ormay be
less, was enough.
Aid. Vandewaker spoke again, and
Joe Ingenhutt said he believed in pay
Ing men what they needed to live on.
President Johnson asked Aid. Nc
GOwan to take the chair and went on
the floor with the look of man who is
about to cut the Gordon knot. He
waited for a windy but winded man
from the Eighth ward to finish some
remarks he was making about justice
He then rose and said in his idea the
aldermen had to look at the question
only from business point of view, and
as the representatives of the taxpayers.
he could see no reason why there
should be an attempt to force wages up
here when other people pay less.
Aid. Potter said that the property of
city depends on the prosperity of its
labOring men, and this is not entirely
business question; it is to a large eX-
tent matter between the citizens and
thelI government, and the question of
how much can man support himself
and family on should be considered
here.
The amendment to make a slidiug
scale-from SLIGO to S1.75-was lost and
then yea and nay vote was taken on
the question of Aid. Parry's amend
ment, making it S1.75, was lost by tie
vote and the original report of the COM
mittee was adopted by a vote of 81 to
16. Next Aid. MCGOWAN discovered
that he had been recorded as voting no
on the Parry amendment. whereas he
didn't vote at all and insisted on having
it changed. This removed the tie, but
nothing was changed in the records, eX-
cept the vote and the subsequent mo-
ton, which would have been shut off
by a correct count, was allowed to re-
main as it was.
Later Aid. Swanson moved to make
ten hours days work and SITS days
pay, and to give married men and resi-
dents the preference in hiring help,
and to so Tx it by resolution: the matter
was lost in the shuttle and not acted
upon.