Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-03
BUILDERS TO FIGHT.
Their Organ Says They Will Oppose
the Eight-Hour Agitation.
HOW home CONTRACTORS SUFFER
fittsburg Work Done in Small Towns
Where Labor is Cheap.
TIE ASSOCIATION TO DISCUSS IT


dsy next The event will be the regular
annual gathering of the exchange, and, on
account of the impending eight-hour trou-
bic, it Is expected that it will be the most
important meeting in the history of the ex-
change. The organization cannot take ac-
tion as body on labor questions, but an in
direct movement will be instituted. An at
tempt will be made to have the exchange
lend delegates to the annual convention of
the National Association of Builders, to be
held at st. Paul on the 27th inst The Pitts.
burg Exchange is not connected with the
national organization and it is doubtful
whether delegates will be sent or not. II
the exchange does nodsend representatives
then a number of Pittsburg builders will 90
on their own hook.
The national association will take up the
eight-hour question and adopt some action
in regard to it Among those who will go
to the meeting is W. S. Sharon, managing
editor of the Journal Of Building. He has
received copy of the programme of the
meeting and upon that bases an article
which appears in the current issue of the
paper. Mr.. Sharon, when asked what the
builders would do in regard to the matter
when it is presented to them by their en-
plOyes, said:
THEY WILL SHOW FIGHT.
"The contractors and builders of the
county intend to fight the matter. They
say they cannot afford to run on an eight
hour day basis. think one outcome of
the matter will be that it will force the
Builders Exchange to 60 into the national
association. They should have gone into
the association long time ago, SO as they
could lend their cooperation to legislation
on such questions. The national organiza-
tion takes up matters of such great import
ance and it would be to the interest of the
Pittsburg people to have something done
about it. One of the vital principles of the
association is that they shall employ who
they please, how they please and work as
mauy hours as they please.
81 think the Pittsburg builders would
sign the eight-hour scale If it was not for the
fact of other contractors jumping in and
taking the business. Last year the builders
of PiTtsbuTg did a business amounting to
Sc, ,000, 900. Of this amount $3.50, 600 was
done by a contractor at Erie, Pa. He works
his men ten hours a day, while the Pittsburg
men work but nine. The wages paid in Erie
are about 25 per cent less than are paid in
this city. On this account the contractor is
enabled to underbid our builders. He takes
3 contract for a building and everything
that goes in it is made at Erie. None of the
work is done in this city. If these. con-
tractors were driven from the city we would
have no trouble about the eight-hour law.
I think the convention of the Union Asso-
citation of Lumber Dealers, to be held at
Dayton this month, will also take some
action on the matter. In his paper, which
is the official organ of the builders Mr.
Sharon says:
PITTSBURG THE STARTING POINT.
1t is generally conceded that Pittsburg as q
stronghold of organized labor is the proper
point to make the test The master builders
of Pittsburg and Allegheny county, who en-
ploy upward of 900 mechanics, good, bad and |
indifferent claim and can substantiate the |
declarations that the adoption Of an eight |
hour movement in this city means a paralyza-
tion of the local building trades It must be |
therefore met with the most determined oppo-
sition, and that upon the highest plane of |
equity and reason. With the united effort of |
the allied building craftsmen, the American
Federation of Labor will have about as much |
chance Of success as an icicle would in putting |
out the fires Of his Satanic Majesty. Eight |
hours for days work is too short in the build
ing trades, not from the fact that enough labor |
wages for that many hours of labor but for |
the following lndisputanble reasons:
WHAT THE REASONS ARE.
That in commencing work at O'Clock A. M,
the day is SO far advanced that workmen can
not in the heat of the day render service that |
would warrant living wages being paid. Be- |
tween the hours of and A. N. in the cool of |
the morning. the mechanic nimbles himself for |
his days work, which if he begins one hour |
later would commence his work in the heat of |
the day.
No contractor or builder could estimate the /
amount of work that could be performed under /
such circumstances, even if the mechanic be /
paid by the hour.
Eight hours labor means that all the planning
mill work that is done in this city will be done
IN small towns, where they are not affected with
labor organizations, large mercantile taxes, ex-
pensive water rents, vehicle licenses, costly in
Burance. ETC., etc.
Mechanics living in small places own their
less. They pay no large fees TO support walk
ing delegates, master workmeI, secretaries,
agitators or hall rents, in which to meet and
Ten hours a day labor in country towns is
considered short hours, and overtime work is
paid pro rata, instead Of time and one-half.
HOW BOYS DO WORK.
Boys are permitted to work in the mills and
workshops, and they do as much labor as men
in the cities and are paid only boys wages
They take pride in doing their work instead
of putting in the time.
Experience has demonstrated that where
city mechanics refuse TO put up the work man.
utactured in small places that workmen are
imported from these places who come and put
the work into position, and labor ORGANIZE
tions dare not interfere with them. They re-
ceive protection from authorities that non
union men cannot
Eight hours labor means that country mills
and manufacturers have the advantage of % !
per cent in time. which is profit in itself and
all other points equal, the country contractor
has advantage.
Here in the city of Pittsburg in the year JUST
closed, one contractor from a country town has |
done fully half million dollars worth of the
building, and in so per cent of that work he has
derived the advantages cited.
JOHN KIRSCHBAUM KILLED