The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-06-02
THAT DISPUTED CLAUSE.
TRUSTEES SPEND AN EVENING
OVER TT.
Electrical Workers Unions Re
quest Will Take Another Week
for Settlement.


AT the adjourned meeting of the
Board of Trustees held last night the
question Of advertising for bids for
Street lighting was taken up and as
that involved the request made by the
members OF the Electrical Workers
Union, that a clause be inserted making
1t mandatory upon the company taking
the contract to employ only members Of
that union on its lines, Trustee Paine,
In order to bring the matter before the
meeting. moved that clause be inserted.
Secretary Smith of the Federated
Trades Union was prsse MT and on behalf
of the Electrical. Workers Union urged
that the motion be carried and the
clause inserted. He said that while
Attorney Hatfield and Corporation
Counsel Devine had assured the board
that contract drawn under such a pro-
vision would not hold-they, the FEEDER
ated Trades, We're willing to submit the
arbItrament of the matter to the Su-
preme Court. While he was no lawyer, he
thought that his opinion was just as
good as that of the attorneys, and he
felt that the safety and lives of the
employees depended upon the insertion
of the clause.
F. j. Mathews also addressed the
board and complimented Trustee De-
vine very highly on the stand taken
by him at last Mondays meeting. He
said that labor produced wealth, and
that the more wages a man earned the
better it was for society. He held that
the man who got only 70 cents or 81
per day cuts little figure in society. The
primary object of organization, he said,
was to secures good wages, and he sub
mitted that if employers would pay
good wages there would be no need of
unions. He said that he knew nothing
about the legal aspect of the case, but
he did know that a power company was
not obliged to bid with such a provision
in the contract unless it saw fit so to
do.
Trustee Tebbets said that some dem
lists he knew We're taking work for half
price and then getting Cinnamon to
do it. He inquired what action should
be taken.
Organize" advised Trustee Devine.
Attorney Hatfield. representing the
Sacramento Gas, Electric and Railway
Company, said he was at a loss to
know why the Electrical Union should
NClIldllQ Tic liAScI liOll III Tie tlduSc pGO-
posed. He thought it only justice that
the man whose funds were embarked on
the venture should have the say as to
what men he should or should not en-
ploy. He said in reply to Mr.. Matthews
that there had never been any question
of wages between the power company
he represented and its employees, and
that union men were given work and
Maid the MI, m
men. He said that the law imposed
no penalty upon any man because he
failed to hire a particular rcan or set
of men to do his work. and that as long
as the men employed received as good
as or better wages than were paid in
ether cities, he was at a loss to I'M
derstand why such provision should
be demanded. He said the members
of the union seemed to take it for
granted that all union men are skilled
ldborers and that all others are not
Such an idea, he held, was entirely
wrong. and that just as good workmen
and Just as good American citizens We're
to be found outside of unions as in.
Looking at the matter from a legal
standpoint, Mr.. Hatfield said that
contract entered into with such a pro-
vision inserted could not be enforced
He said that four or five men could get
together and form a union, and that
nothing would prevent half dozen
men getting together and forming an
other union and demanding that oriy
they be employed. The members of the
beard, he said, were required TO give
bonds upon taking office, and he told
them that if, owing to the insertion of
such clause, difficulty should arise,
they would be held responsible those
bonds. The City Charter, he said, pro-
vides that the people shall have the
privilege of getting things as cheaply
as possible.
In answer TO the assertion that dor
produces capital, Mr. Hatfield said that
labor, organized or otherwise, would be
powerless without capital-that unless
somebody had funds with which to
start public enterprises, there would be
no outlet for labor. On the other hand,
he said, capital could do nothing in the
way of enterprise without labor, SO that
as matter of fact both went or should
go, hand in hand, each dependent upon
the other.
Mr.. Hatfield said that such an under
taking as the building and operating The
Central or the Southern Pacific Rail-
road would never have succeeded with
out the capital furnished and the mas
terful financiering of man like {. P.
Huntington, and that that great avenue
of gain for the wage owner would never
have been opened.
Mr.. Smith inquired of Mr.. Hatfield
if it were not fact that in New York
City the members of the police force are
obliged to wear union made hats.
II wouldn't be surprised replied Mr.
Hatfield, for New York is the worst
governed city in the world"
Nj. Smith also wanted to know if in
Boston and Chicago the authorities did
not compel city employees to wear GER
tain articles of clothing made by union
labor, and Mr.. Hatfield thought i. prob
able He said he would wonder at