Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-05-17
TESTING THE PIPE LINE.
Contractors Express Themselves willing
to Employ Home Labor.

Contractors Express Themselves willing
to Employ Home Labor.
The testing of about 1880 feet of the
pir line will take place to-day. The work
of filling the section with water was COM
menced Tuesday afternoon and continued
up to last night. When the pump was
stopped the pipe near the main gate on
Mattatuck street lacked about twelve
inches of being full. This point is the
highest in the 2, 800 feet SO that about an
hours pumping to-day filled the pipe.
The water is pumped from the Naugatuek
river. When all is in readiness from one
hundred and fifty to two hundreds pounds
pressure will be put on and If no leaks are
found the section will be approved. II
leaks are discovered it must be recaulked.
The curves are being laid as regular as
well laid railroad track and this will save
about two hundred feet on the entire line.
AS fast as the pipe is laid it is covered
with planks to shield it from the sun.
When the test is made and found salts
factory the contractor will commence the
work of covering the pipe.
An attempt to make the test this morn
ing failed. The plate which was set in
the end of the line of pipe leaked when
water pressure of fifty pounds was applied
and repairs had to be made SO that 1t will
stand pressure of $50 pounds. Another
trial will probably be made this afternoon.
John Fitzpatrick, who was appointed by
the water supply committee to see that the
contractors kept their agreement with the
city in regard to employing Waterbury
mel, made trip along the pipe line Satul-
day and Monday and talked with the diff
ferent contractors. Martin Lipps, whose
section is near the dam, expresses his will
lingness to employ all the Waterbury men
that applied for work. Thatcher & Knibbs
have about one hundred men at work,
about thirty five of whom belong in Water
bury. They express themselves willing to
employ all Waterbury men, but can not
agree to find them boarding places. John
W. Gaffney & Co will require from fifty to
seventy-five men as soon as the pipe line
is tested and will employ residents of Wa
terbury.
The contractors complain that some of
the men who are loud in their denuEcia-
ton of the way the work is being done, do
not want work and are disturbtrs. It is
claimed that one man who was given en-
ployment by Gaffney & Co spent SO much
of his time lecturing to men on the section
upon the rights of the workingman that he
was discharged. Another man approached
John Fitzpatrick yesterday with tale of
woe, saying that he could not secure work.
He did not look like man who wanted to
work and when Mr. Fitzpatrick
offered to give him an order that would Sc
cure him a place on the pipe line he de-
clined, saying he did not want to go out
side of the city to work. These things are
printed to show that while there are many
who are willing and anxious to work there
are others whose actions tend to condemn
the whole movement in aid of the unem-
ployed.
The Hartford Times says:
1.-The recent demand upon the city au-
thorities of Waterbury, that work be pro-
vided for the unemployed laborers of the
city, at the public expense, is wholly for
eign to the Ideas upon which local govern
ment, or any other kind of government in
this country, is established. No govern
ment has a right to take money out of the
pockets of one part of the community on
the demand of another part that may hap
pen to be in temporary need of employ
ment
But in this Waterbury case there was
feature which afforded something in the
nature of warrant for the demand Of the
resident laborers. While unable to find
employment themselves it is only natural
that they should have protested against
the importation of outsiders to work on
the relaying of the street railroad, and
more especially on the new reservoir
which is being constructed at city expense.
Although the former enterprise is of a
semi public character, yet it is in another
sense private affair, and the workmen
contented themselves with merely criti-
cising the employment of outsiders. But
in the case of the public enterprise the
reservoir, they remembered a clause in the
contract whereby the contractors obligated
themselves to employ local labor excepting
for certain difficult parts of the work re-
quiring skilled hands. But outside of
this, they argued that 1t was wiser policy,
even in the absence of any stipulation, for
the city to employ resident laborers whose
earnings would be returned to the chan
nels of trade in Waterbury through pay
ments for rent, provisions, etc, rather than
imported laborers, who are satisfied to live
in rude camps and when their work ends
will leave the place and take away with
them large share of their earnings.
These questions are practical ones for
every community contemplating expensive
improvements. Is it better to get the
work done little cheaper by outside con-
tract labor and let the money go elsewhere,
or is it preferable to have it done by local
labor and keep the money at home p? Wa
terbury's attempted solution of the prob
lem, by making contract with stipula-
ton for the employment of local labor,
was well intended, but does not seem to
have been altogether satisfactory in its
workings"