The evening times., 1899-08-05
MINE LABOR IN DEMAND.
Great Returns From Irop aud Coal
Fields About PittsburE,

| rssla. ABOUT PittsburE.
| Phtsburg, Aug 5.-The golden horn of
| plenty is turned full upon the Industrial
Klondike which spreads fanwise for sixty
miles three ways from the city of Pitts
| burg. A hundred and eighty square miles
of wealth. realizing gross output of $6.-
100000 a day, is being developed. Hun
dreds of iron and coal mines are yielding
greater returns in gold than Bonanza Gulch,
on the Yukon, as result Of the sturdy en-
ergies Of $4,000 miners working twenty-fouf
hours day.
Every mill. forge, furnace, and factory
huns with the irresistible persistence Of
an army of toilers 100, 900 strong who know
no distinction between daylight and dark
ness. Wages are better and work is more
plentiful than the Pittsburg district has
ever before known
The only shortage is the supply of Ia
Dor of the right sort and in the inade-
quacy of facilities for filing orders that
pour in, a dazzling torrent, upon the man
ufacturers Of iron, steel, coal, coke, tin,
glass, and their products
Every manufacturer complains OF his In
ability to- secure adequate and competent
help.
Throughout the whole Industrial Klon-
dixie there are hut tWo- strikes. Neither OF
them is due to any dissatisfaction of the
toiers with the wages.
Both are the result OF the inability OF
the manufacturer whose plants are con-
cerned to secure the sort of help they want
and their importation of men from the out
side
One of the manufacturers brought band
of colUred' f'puddlers for his mill from the
South and a white W0rkmon struck
reporter Interviewed number of man
ufacturers and workmen yesterday and both
agreed that wages were better and work
more plentiful than ever before in the his
tory of the iron and coal trade
"There is no need said John Bindley,
the President Of the Pittsburg Chamber OF
Commerce, 'of any man being without
work in the Pittsburg district il he can do
anything"
Leaders of labor unions said the same
thing. The chief demand of the manu-
facturers is, of course, for skilled labor,
but there is also shortage OF laborers OF
all sorts, and unparalleled daily wages
are being paid Skilled iaborers are max
ing double the daily wages of two years
ago. and can work as many hours a day
and night as they desire. The big blast
furnaces and steel works at Homestead,
where the Carnegie works located,
have been running day and night for three
months, and even this does not enable the
manufacturers to fill their contracts.
A leading iron operative said that he had
been notified by the mill that usually fur
nishes him material that his last order
could not be filled under four months. 1t
is the same in every branch Of the iron
and steel trade. All manufacturers are be-
hind in their contracts owing TO the lack OF
labor and facilities. Many mills have dou-
bled their capacity and others would do SO
il they could
Prices of manufactured material have
advanced marvelously. Steel billets, which
a year ago sold at S15 a ton, now COM
mand s35. Hundreds of thousands of tons
of iron and steel products are stacked in
tore-houses awaiting transportation. The
scarcity of freight cars amounts 10 fami-
nine although the railway companies are
pressing every car they can patch up or
borrow from other roads into service
coal miner and shipper told of his
failure TO secure sufficient number OF
cars to transport his output Il average
thirty carloads day he said, but have
been unable to secure more than ten cars
a day for three weeks
The good times that have come to the
operators and operatives in the Pittsburg
Klondike are not confined to the iron,
STEEL COAL coke, tin. and glass fields.
From reports TO the commercial agen-
cies and big dealers the sun of prosperity
shines upon all kinds of toiers, the labor
and professional classes alike. 1t was said
by a lawyer and by leading newspaper
proprietor that the supply of competent
labor in those branches was quite as re-
stricted as in the mines and mills.