The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-11-02

generally have been paying more attention
to the laboring classes within the last two
orthree years. The men also themselves
have been looking more to themselves.
Their trades unions have been very well
managed, and when they have asked for an
increase In their pay, they have usually
gotten 1t. In fact for two years past bust
ness has been SO pushing that the men have
had 1T pretty much all their own way. The
employer was so busy with orders that he
could not afford to have controversy with
his workingmen. 1t is a very easy thing to
put wages up. but very difficult to get them
down again. But just now, no one has any
cause Tor complaint, and the relations be-
tween capital and labor are quite friendly.
Both have too much to do to quarrel. This
condition Of affairs is of two told benefit to
our Worklngmen. Itmakes them contented,
and to very great extent keeps Them out
of the rum shop. Consequently there is
great decrease Ii lntemperance, since labor
ing men began to assert themselves, and
our people began to treat them better.
nave been IL business twenty -four years,
and nave never known our mechanics to be
so well to do, and L hope no era of depres-
sion will come upon US to unsettle them"
Are other trades as well off as your
ownl'
Eyes, some of them even more pushed.
Plumbers, painters, carpenters, black
smiths, and all that class are in demand
and although the average rate of wages is
nine pence Us cents per hour the work is
so let out by the piece, that good mechanics
make much more than the standard price
which the unions fix. In fact, wherever it
is possible in this country,
WORK is ALWAYS LET OUT BY THE PIECE,
and it is better for employer and employed.
But this wage question is a very important
one, and it will probably never be solved to
the satisfaction of those who have and those
who wantn
The London bus driver is a great char
acter, and is in sharp contrast with men
employed in the same pursuits in the
United States. No class of workingmen
anywhere of that grade are so bright, so
well-dressed and cockey as the men who
guide omnibuses through the busy thor
oughfares of London. Many of them with
their tall hats, kid gloves and buttonhole
bouquets and cigars or pipe look more like
passenger than like drivers. Then If
stranger wants half an hour of pleasure
and good information, he can find it better
nowhere in this country than in climbing to
box seat by the side OF John and engag
ing him in conversation while he is travel
ing on his route. Almost universally they
are good takers, entertaining and instruc
tive. Indeed they seem to study to be all
this, and they get many shilling that
surly. They quite understand that, and
make the best possible use of their talents
to increase their revenue. These bus driv-
ers receive from the great companies who
employ them six shillings (S150) a day, and
there is no day during good weather when
they they do not add something to it
through their politeness to the passengers
who travel with them. They work four
teen hours getting rests between each trip,
aud time for meals. Most of them live
within easy reach of the stables where
their work begins, and they live in man
ner quite in keeping with their appearance
on the box. For instance, q man who has
fair sized family will join with some friend
equally fixed and take
NICE NINE OR TEN RooMED HOUSE,
for which they pay twelve or fourteen shil
lings (S3 or $500 week and divide the
rooms and rent between them. Those who
rent floors or live in apartments only pay
from four to six shillings Isl to $l50) d
week rent, but whether in houses or rooms
they have attractive homes to go to when
their work is over, because dirt and I'M
cleanliness seem to be an unknown quantity
in those grades of English life. Even the
poor besotted devil who neglects his work,
and is wretched beyond compare from his
own misdeeds will brush up bit two or
three times week and try to have sprig
of grass or an English rose on the window
sill.
Horse cars cut a very small figure in the
life of London except in the outlying dis
tricts and the prices paid to both conduc-
tors and drivers are less than given to those
who drive the buses, but the drivers in
either case are the best paid of the two, as
the conductors receive only four ShillinRs
| (Sl) day but as they have the handling of
all the money, there is very little check
INT ic
able that they at least even matters up with
the driver, if not little more before the
days settlement is made. But wherever
you go, and which ever way you investi-
gate, the wide difference between the meth
DDS in this country and our own are appar
ent, and it is quite difficult to draw compar-
| isonS between the conditions here and in
the United States even if that was my pur-
pose. But after careful search into so
many of
THE CRACKS AND CREvICEs OF INDUSTRIAL
LIFE.
both high and low l have not been able to
discover that the people who labor here are
down trodden and oppressed. There are
many, very many dark phases of life and of
poverty dire and deep just as we find them
in New York city. Some grinding employ
ers in the lower grades of manufacturing
give out their work at starvation wages,
and some men and women labor for pit
lance just as they do in the American me-
tropolis, which is but reflex of this, ex-
cept that New York is a city of tenements
and this is to great extent city of homes
| "Sweating' is practiced here now and then
just as it is with US, but the law watches it
quite IS closely as in our country, and pub
| lie sentiment is thoroughly aroused against
this class of wrong, and that means a great
| deal where, as it does here, public senti-
ment is the mighty factor and practically
controls all political life. Parliament needs
a strong impression of public opinion in a
! flash and the voice Of no community in
| England can be raised in protest without
a hearing. Therefore, the humblest has an
equal chance with the highest, to ventilate
his wrongs before the highest tribunal in
the land, and to get as fair a judgment.
An inquiry into a study of this ''life
among the lowly'' has been most interest
ing because it has given me an opportunity
OF watching phases of human nature never
to be found in my own country, and it also
teaches some valuable lessons of the differ
ence between a new land like ours, where
| there is no national habit,
NO LEISURE CAss,
and no fixed condition that may not be
changed by accident. Think how strange
it must seem to an American to seea work
ingman GO to his labor without his break
fast. Perhaps cup of coffee, or a glass of
| beer is taken before the work is begun.
then two or three hours of the days toll is
over and about nine o'clock all hands knock
off and half hour is taken for the first
meal of the day. This is only because the
rich man does not eat until late, and the
less fortunate one wants to follow as nearly
as possible his example. That is also why
the entire English nation is mad about all
sorts of field sports and talks of little else,
no matter how little they know of it in re-
atty 1t is an old adage that ''habit is our
master" This is especially true in this