Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1890-02-16
EIGHT HOURS.
NO SPECIFIC DEMANDS EXPECTED
A Strikes Not Imminent Among the EN-
plOyes.
LABOR SITUATION
III &
Condition of the Labor Field in Pitts
burg.

PIrTsBURG, February 15.-The following
is from the Chronicle Telegraph of this even
tng:-All estimates of the Intentions and
aims of the managers of the great eight
hour movement have been, according to
information acquired to-day, wide of the
mark.
One of toe best-posted and most inflnen-
tial leaders of the building trades had CON
siderable to ssy to-day on the question.
In fact, he had more to say on the question
than has yet been made public.
The impression prevails that specific
demand is TO be made upon the employers
of labor for day Of eight hours at the rate
o. pay received at the present time for
nine, ten or eleven hours work, rs the case
may be, and that wherever this de-
msnd is not exceeded to on May l, strike
will be ordered.
This impression, according to the su-
tbority referred TO, is erroneous. There
will be no strike. The movement as con-
ceived by the American Federation of
Labor will be inaugursted at that time;
ths general understanding among labor
leaders is that there will be a general
working to this desired end, but the strike
will not be resorted to.
"Why," said he, "the building trades
have been practically working on the
eight-hour system for year or two.
mean to say that workers have been paid
go much per hour, and that if they only
accomplished eight hours work they were
paid for that much time.
'The master builders. when they in
their last convention declared for pay by
the hour, only endorsed practice that has
been adhered to in this district for two
years or more. There exists at this time
little difference between bosses and Jour-
neymen on this question. But can you
tell me why building costs less to-day
than il did eight years ago, when material
and labor costs about the SAINT? The re-
ply simply is that the contractors are ac-
cepting smaller profits now than they did
then. 1t means that through organiza-
tion and possibly competition, the bosses
have been brought to point where they
accept smaller profits, than they used to
be satisfied with.
"After Msy l contractors will pay the
men for the WorK done at so mucn per
hour, and we don't claim that the price
will be any advance over the price paid at
the present time"
''What is the strength of the building
ira les in this district"
The carpenters and joiners number
abput 4, 500 men. The bricklsyers num-
ber $50 mer; stone masons, $50; cutters,
800; plssterers, 465, and bod carriers, sp-
prentices, laborers, ETC., number from 500
TO 800 more. There is a total of about
1896 workers.
I'm the ratio of workers required IN
these trades, One plasteIer will do work
after II carpenters, and one bricklayer will
work even with five or six carpenters.
You will see by these figures that toe per-
centage of workers in this district is evenly
divided, and that there is not any consid J.
erable surplus of either branch of the
trades
81 want you to say that there is to be
no great upheaval this spring in any trade,
and there is no reason why trouble should
be predicted"