The Saint Paul globe., 1898-07-24

perts in every branch of the machiniSts
trade, brass workers, carpenters and
cabinet makers, tinSmith and boiler
makers, workers in copper, upholster
ers, GLACIERS, blacksmiths- s-there were
even practical masonS at work. The
list of employees was not restricted to
the mechanical arts, for in one COM
partment by themselves were the
chemists, who test every article in the
way of raw material that is used for
any purpose, not only that which enters
into the manufacturing departments,
but even the drinking water that Is
used on the system is subjected to
analysis.
1t is shown at glance that the shop
lis one of the greatest, If not the very
greatest, training school in the trades
in the state About Is per cent of
the employees are young men who are
apprentices to one of the trades. The
percentage varies, but it never exceeds
that. 1t is something of a close corpor-
ration, though, for the journaymen
mechanics bring their boys up with the
idea that they shall some time be al
lowed to learn a trade at the Great
Northern shops.
Here then is an immense institution
which employees in the manufacturing
ard repair departments $50 people. OF
that number there are 420, or there
abCuts, who are classed as skilled work.
men and paid accordingly. Of the $50
about 425 are heads of families. The
wages paid range from $1.20 to $500
per day. The wages paid the appren-
tices run from the so cents per day Of
the boy who is in his first month to
the 1925 per day given the young man
who is a skilled workman and nearly
out Of his time. The percentage of
laborers is very small. In the machine
shops, where much heavy work must
be performed by manual strength
alone the laborers and apprentices
combined do not nearly equal the num-
ber of high-priced mechanics. In the
other departments where there is not
much lifting and heavy work that must
be performed by hand the percentage
of laborers is much smaller.
The amount paid in wages, in the
total, to those $50 employees, is some
thing over $1,000 per day. This is dis
tipct from the storekeepers pay roll,
which amounts to $4,000 per month.
HIGH CLASS OF MEN.
The men are of a high class. The
work in the shops is very steady, and
the number Of men on the pay rolls
| has not varied for some years except
! for a short time just after the panic
| when there was a general Stacking in
| business. This feature of steady work
an occupation that is not liable in any
| great measure to the stiffness that
marks the work of the mechanic who
| earns his living in shops devoted to
! special lines of manufacture puts
| places in the Great Northern shops at
! premium, and there are men there,
| many of them, who have been in the
shops since they were started; who
have married and brought up families.
and have their own boys working side
| by side with them as skilled workmen.
This class Of men have their own
homes and are the best possible sort of
terially interested in this question of
whether the shops may not be removed
to st. Cloud or elsewhere unless they
| can be enlarged A stout, old man. a
very comfortable man of fifty-five or
thereabouts, talked as he was leaving
| his bench yesterday afternoon. He
| had his sen with him, a young fellow
of twenty-five. They were both skilled
men at the machinists trade. Said the
old fellow:
"Yes, 1 have heard it talked about
that something might happen that
| would take the shops out of ST. Paul
Now me an my boy Jim there both
| own our own homes. 1 have mine
pretty well paid for, but Jim has only
been paying for three years-since he
got married. If the shops are not kept
going, or If we had to go somewhere
else to work, 1 suppose that l could
get together three or four hundred dol
lars and pay what l owe on my place
i but Jim would certainly lose the five
hundred and odd dollars that he has
paid. And if we could pay for the
houses and bit of land. what use would