The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1895-01-17
RAILROAD BUILDING
How Some Men Rise
from the Ranks.
A Profession in Which
Men Rise.
The Era of Great Fortunes Made in
Railway Contracts Has
Passed.


| Railroad building, like everything
else" said a Western contractor of
large experience, has felt the depres-
sion of the last two years, but no mat
ter how soon and how thoroughly bus
mess may revive, the aggregate of
new railway mileage for the next ten
years will be comparatively small.
Not only have the great railways of
the country been built, but the erl Of
great fortunes made in railway con-
tracts has passed"
The contractor in question, though
still young man, has seen revolu-
ton in his profession. The railway
contractor of twenty years ago did his
thousands of Irishmen and a spriuk-
ling of Germans and men of other
nationalities. The railway contractor
of today employs Italians, or DagOS 4
somewhat more comprehensive term,
and the steam shovel. The railway
contractor Of twenty or twenty-five
years ago, when he managed his work
judiciously, made profits that would
drive his successor of today half mad
with delight. The past years small
mileage of new railroads was built at
a lower cost than any ever before
constructed in the history of the bus
mess. Wages are slightly lower than
they have hitherto been, while mate
rialS of all sorts have been lower than
anyone dreamed of seeing them. 1T
is possible now to buy rails not only
at amazingly low prices, but at terms
never before known in the business.
1t used to be that a sight draft ac-
Icompanied the consignment of rails
Now they can be purchased on three
years time at low rate of interest.
AS to rolling stock, cars can be pur-
chased on ten years time, with annual
payments at four per cent.
The situation as to railroad labor
is somewhat peculiar. 1t is true that
pick and shovel men can be hired at
lS1.1O to $125 q day if no more than
100 or so is needed; but if there should
be a sudden demand for 1000 or 1000
men to go out upon piece of railway
work at a distance from any great
centre of population, the price would
almost instantly rise to $1.5O and
$1.75 a day. The Italian laborer is
priced throughout the West above all
others save the Scandinavian, but the
Scandinavian is comparatively scarce.
The italian railway laborer is always
ready for work and always has money
in his pocket. Where Italians are em-
ployed and paid by check a contract
or's bank account may show for many
months together a fictitious balance
of $4,000, $4,000, or $4,000, because
the laborerS are carrying their checks
tucked away in a safe place, to bi.
cashed all together at a convenient
time. 1t used to be that railway Ia
| c4 to oil
less two or three days after each
monthly payment
American farm boys are commonly
employed as teamsters in railway
building throughout the West. They
receive about the same average wages
as pick-and-shovel men, $50 a month
and board, or from $1.5O to $1.75 a
day. The Irishnlan has disappeared
; from new work in the West as in the
East, and has drifted to the section
. houses of the Western railroads, where
he finds permanent and comparatively
light employment at somewhat lower
wages than are paid in New York.
The Western roads are divided into
sections of six miles each, and a sec
ton man or boss, has the section
boarding house, with his wife to run
it. She is the ''boordin' missis," iu
the language of the track, and her
boarders are the section men.
The regularity of the Dago has CIV
) en- an average certainty to the ele-
| ment Of labor in railway building. 1t
used to be that in working a gang of
, 200 men the contractor in the course
of a month would have 500 or 500
names on his book, because the per-
/ sonnel of the gang was shifting: Now
95 per cent of a Dago gang will work
, every working day of the month.
t Contractors find it impossible to
make distinctions as to wages anIoni.
men doing the same kind of work
but there is promotion for the thor
, oughly capable man. Such men be-
come small bosses, at %, so or Is
: cents a day above the pay of ordinary
navvies, and it is from these small
, bosses that the general foremen arc
chosen. Such men earn as much as
$3.50 a month, and contractors usually
prefer that the general foreman shall
have worked up from the shovel. A
civil engineer is occasionally made
general foreman, but usually with TN
= satisfactory results. 1t is a melan-
choly fact that many well trained en-
gineers of experience earn less than
a general foreman, and every con.
tractor with an important piece OF
work in view for the coming spring is
: overrun with applications for places
' from civil engineers.
Little money has been made in rail.
, way building in the past year, but
| large contractors have maintained q
small organization, and the really
, capable contractor who should obtain
a contract requiring an immediate
opening of operations could he at work
7 in fifteen days, weather permitting
= Every such contractor knows where
to lay his hands upon the men he
l needs to complete his organization
r and the very day upon which a con.
tract was signed the contractor would
5 have score of kilograms speeding
= to the men he needed. 1t is the Gus
tom to Sublet all work to small con.
l tractors, who undertake from half &
5 mile to four or five miles of road. The
small contractor is, in effect, a bos
L working under the general contractor
= and bound by the terms of the con.
tract to do whatever the latter deems
necessary for the prompt completion
} of the work. The rise of the sub
contractor to the management of large
5 interests is one Of the most instructive
l and significant manifestations in The
|coulse of railroad building. Perhaps
l an industrious and saving teamstel
5 lays up enough to buy pair of mules
and he is able then to get wages fol
himself and his stock. His next steI
= is to buy another pair and hire a man
to drive them. By the time he has
] four or five teams he ceases to drive
fpoa t>nr cta1s