The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-01-03

Bulletin No. 7. of the national de-
partment Of labor, contains an inter
esting paper showing by comparison,
the relative merits OF day and contract
labor on public works. For the pur-
pose Of the paper the cities of New
York, Philadelphia, Boston and Balti-
more were selected, and about one hun
dred occupations are taken into consid-
GRAFTON. The wages paid under the re-
spective systems are tabulated, show
ing the highest, lowest and average for
each occupation, and occupy twenty
tiVe pages of the publication. In the
preliminary paragraphs the paper says:
1t is strongly asserted in some quar-
tiers that the tendency Of letting public
contracts to the lowest bidder is to
lever the wages of labor; that the low
est bidder is, generally speaking, the
man who pays lowest wages or expects
to use the poorest material: that the
idea that the lowest bidder is the one
willing to accept least profits for him
self is erroneous.
The legislature Of the state of New
York seems to have been convinced of
the tendncy Of the contract system to
lower the rates of wages, and in 1894
passed law that all contractors on
public works, state and municipal
must pay the prevailing rate Of wages
in the locality in which the work is
being done. Pursuant to this law a
clause to the effect that "aIl mechan-
les, workingmen and laborers now or
hereafter employed by the state, or
any municipal corporation therein,
through its agents or officers or in the
employ of persons contracting with
the state or such corpora ton for per-
Gov Of, To d II
receive not less than the prevailing
rate of wages in the respective trades
or callings in which such mechanics,
workingTnen and iaborers are employ
ed in said locality"
Philadelphia has an elaborate scale,
liking the rate of wages for nearly
every trade and occupation employed
by any Of the city departments. These
rates are the maximum union rates in
cases of organized trades, and CORE
spending rates for other occupations.
As a general statement 1t may be af-
firmed that the public when employing
- directly by day labor pays the highest
prevailing rate for the shortest prevail
ing day. 1t would appear also, at least
in a great many instances, that this
can be done with the best economic re-
suits.
The city Of Boston sprinkles it's own
streets by day labor, having practical
~ abandoned the contract system for
this work In the annual report of the
street department Of the city of Bos-
ton for 1895, the superintendent sum-
marizes the result Of the two systems
in two of the districts as follows: Con-
1cS4ct w0rr66, 1901 eee96.o2; day work.
1885, 44,99O; saving in day work
$1,706.O2; contract work, 1894 SIS, 128. SO;
day work, 1895, 81, $40; saving in day
work, $2,588.50; total saving in day
work over contract work $4,294.52.
AS appears in the tables following,
the rate of wages paid by the city to
the men who actually did the street
watering was considerably greater
than the wages paid by the contrac-
tors.
The street commissioner of Baltimore
states upon computations made by
him that he could more efficiently do
the work and save the city enough in
one year to pay for the contractor s
plant and do better work This COM
putation was based upon a, proposition
to pay the legal city rate of wages,
$1.66 % per day, whereas the present
contractor pays the machine drivers
but 80 cents Per day. The cost of su-
perVisiOn and inspection increases as
to the contract price decreases until it
sometimes costs almost as much to
make the contractor do his work as it
would to do it.
The paper states that "a minute and
satisfactory statement Of the cost of
sewer construction, excavation, etc.
could not be obtained in Boston where
an enormous amount is being done I'M
der both systems The work perform
ed by day labor is, however, generally
experimental, and even where the con-
ditiOns were practically similar no &C
counts that could be used for compari-
son were Obtainable One very signifi-
cant statement was, however, made by
the secretary of the metropolitan sew
er commission to the effect that one
piece of sewer had been constructed
entirely by day labor because it I'M
dermined some private property, and
Notwithstanding their inspection the
commissioners were afraid to risk the
contract system because of the heavy
damage suits that might result from
faulty work.
The Trades and Labor assembly
Thursday evening held it's regular meet
Ing postponed from last Friday The
barbers certified to the election of NJ
f. Murray and Joseph M. FIeck as
delegates to the assembly. John Clin-
ton, Of the pressmens union; J. L.
Hughes and Robert Mcclellan, Of the
carpenters; T. Dickens and Bert
WoodersOn, of the boot and shoe work
ers, and Robert Jardin, of the label
league, also presented credentials and
were seated.
Financial Secretary Hoffman. not
having been returned as a delegate
E. B. Lott, Of. the bOOkbinders' union,
was elected to seNJe out the term. The
boot and shoe workers union submitted
a draft Of the proposed prison law en-
bCdying reforms which that organiza-
ton particularly desires to have effect
ed. The assembly accorded it it's in
dcrsement and referred it to a legisla-
tive committee comprising Frank VAL
esh, Peter LOskiel, T. Dickens. J. NJ
Fleck and Henry Feyder Louis Nash
announces his retirement from the as
sembly and was rendered a vote of
thanks for his past labors The reso-
luton of the cigarmakers' union, de-
handing the establishment Of the free
text book system in this city was ap-
proved and referred to the assembly's
free text book committee with instruc-
ticns to appear before the common
council in behalf of the desired reform
A motion by Delegate J. j. O'Rourke,
of the pressfeeders' and job pressmen's
union, to discontinue open meetings,
was defeated by vote of twenty to
thirteen, after a short discussion
Vacancies on committees occasioned
by the withdrawal of delegates were
filled as follows: T. F. Thomas. on
grievance committee; vice G. H. Beck
er, A. j. Kringle, on label committee,
vice Ed. Christopherson, John F.
Krieger was made chairman of the
grievance committee, vice, Louis Nash
A resolution reciting the necessity of
government savings banks that work.
ingmen may be afforded perfectly