The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-01-18
THE UNEMPLOYED MEET
A GATHERING AT THE WALKER
PAVILION YESTERDAY.
Resolutions Adopted DenOuncing the
Contract System IN Municipal
Work-A Committee Appointed to-
Wait Upon the Council.

4 w ait Upon the Council.
A mass meeting of the unemployed
was held yesterday afternoon in the
Old Tunnel, on Second South street.
There were several hundred men pres
emit and a number of speeches were
made, notably by Warren Foster, of
Kansas, who became so well known
here last fall as a Populist orator
! John Stubs called tine meeting to-
order shortly after O'Clock, and Nor
man 3. Dresser was chosen as chair
man.
Resolutions.
The following resolutions were pre-
sented:
Resolved, That we, the unemployed
Of Salt Lake city, in mass meeting as
sernbled, protest against any further
extension Of time to the contractors OF
the gravity sewer, and desire that the
city shall finish the same sewer hInder
| their own supervision by day labor.
Amendment. Resolved, That all con-
tracts shall be abolished and the city
do its own work by day labor.
| Resolved, That the unemployed OF
Salt Lake city urge upon the city couTl-
Gil and other private citizens to open uu
some kind of work so as to give EN-
ployment to such as are, at the present
| time, in a very distressed condition.
| Resolution. Moved that a COMMITTEES
be appointed to approach the city
lcouncn to open up the sewer trench
and that the men be paid by day labor
and paid every week.
To the Constitutional Convention.
Resolved. That we, the workingmen
Of Salt Lake city, in mass meeting as
sembled in the Walker pavilion, on
january H. 1895, urgently request that
1.-THE constitutional convention shalt
place clause in the new constitution.
for Utah to the effect that we shall
have a State Labor bureau, and that
all state and municipal work shall be-
done under its supervision, and that
the old system of letting out contracts
shall be abolished as far as practical
bic, and that all such worla shall be
done by our own citizens and chat the
hours of labor and wages shall be set
tied by our legislature.
All Adopted.
The resolutions, with the amendments
to the first one, were adopted with
scarcely a dissenting voice. The large
Icrowd were very orderly, the only APP
lprOach to anything contrary being
when Contractor Watson attempted
to speak; then a few cries of 1--WE
ldon't want him." put him out" etc,
were heard, but were sflenced by
lothers of flair play" and the gentle
man was allowed to proceed.
John Stubbs Speaks.
John Stubs made a number of short
addresses, in which he denounced the
contract system and incidentally
charged Selectnan Roberts of a poI-t-
ical MisdemeamOr in having his son and
his own personal friends appointed as
the four janitorS in the city and county
; building, The three statsticianS and the
meat inspector, without giving other
men a chance at all.
Dresser on the Contract System.
Norman 3. Dresser said that under
the contract system the contractors get
all the benefit and the men are kept
: down to the lowest notch of wages.
The street railways and the electric
and gas works, etc. are given unlimi-
> ted franchises to exercise the r1ghtful
functions of the city government. and
they become grinding monopolies to the
people He mentioned as Illustrations
THE hiring of boys to work excessive
hours on small pay in the place of COM
petent men by the City Railway COM
2 pany; the proposition to levy a special
tax to pay for the city lighting and
= the mOnOpolizing of the coal industry
of Wyoming by the Union Pacific rail-
Warren Foster Talks.
The principal speaker. however. was
Warren c.. Foster, whose humorous,
but still, at times, intensely earnest.
style was made familiar TO Salt Lakers
during the recent political campaign
HIS remarks were chiefly confined to
anaIyZing the condition of the workers
of the country. He claims that any
system that makes one man go on his
knees before another in order to OBJ
7 tain the privilege of making a living
for himself and his family, is wrong.
The labor-saving machines, under d
! proper system, would be the greatest
blessing to mankind; but under the
, present system they are a curse, as
! they rob him of the work necessary
: to obtain the means of living Let
every cOmpOSitOr out of work ask him.
: self how much good the type setting
J machines do him personally Do they
: put money in his pocket? Do they
= feed or cIothe his children? There is
! not a place in the whole United States
: where a man may stay; even in the
public highways policeman tell a man
: | to ''move on There are no such
L tthing as accidents There must be d
! |
is am effect of that cause. If he was
: mot right in these things, whence then,
5 he asked, come the hordes of hungry.
i unemployed men all over this whole
: country?
+ The Committee Appointed.
e Warren Foster, John Edmunds and
t john Stubbs were appointed as a. COM
= nnSttee to present the resolutions passed
regarding work, etc, to the city council
t and the meeting adjourned
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