The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1900-07-28
ANOTHER ARTICLE
FROM THE CHICAGO AMERICAN, OF
INTEREST TO LABOR.
1t Charges the Contractors With Im-
pOverishinE the City Of Chicago.
The Money That Goes to the Work.
ingmen's Pockets il the Money
That Does Good-COntractors Deny
Labor the Right to Unite.

time publishes some very strong and
pointed editorials on the Industrial
question. 1t takes up the cause of la
Dor and champions it with more force
and affect than could the most able
labor advocate.
In the following editorial it tells the
contractors of Chicago what their duty
to the people is, and what their con-
spiracy means to the city.
We have received letters and visits
from many of the contractors who are
now engaged in locking out Chicago's 8
most skilled workmen.
We consider it we'll to present a few
facts for their consideration.
In the first place, you contractors,
perhaps unconsciously, go around
swelled up with a sense of superiority.
That idea of your being better than
your humblest workingman is not only
un-American, it is preposterous.
You kow-tow and humble yourselves
quickly enough in presence of some
business. You really have not the gen.
uine independence of the average me-
chanic-the chase for money has knock
ed that out OF you.
You cannot compare yourselves with
a man who tolls up and down ladder
carrying bricks Or mortar all day, to
take small sum home to his wife and
children. Please believe that in the
eyes Of sensible citizens and of the Re-
cording Angel that hod carrier sacri-
ficing himself uncomplainingly to feed
a family, is as far above you as the
Auditorium tower is above a toy Noah's
ark.
This sense of superiority-Of which
we trust to rid you before long-has
blinded you to the real state of things.
You We're engaged in trying to grab
all the building work in Chicago for
yourselves. What really got you to-
gether in your contractors union was
the desire to crowd out others, and es-
pecially the small contractors.
You spout grandly about the right
of every man to work, union or nom
union. and you know that you have con-
spired to keep all the building in the
hands of a contractors ring of which
you are the center. You want every
thing for yourselves, and prate of fair
d ness. u Read the Bible on the fate In
/, store for hypocrites We u furnish you
No | u y y biica1
II way. & Is ;3 ISfsS }l -
Il tInpoverlshins the City. d
We accuse you Of retarding the city's
growth and of impoverishing the citys
business and inhabitants.
You have deliberately locked out OF
work at least twenty-five thousand
men. These were earning from two
to four dollars per day. You have de-
prived of work thousands of others
makers of building materials, who have
been forced into idleness because YOU
purposely killed building.
One hundred thousand dollars a day
at least you have taken from the peo'
pie Of Chicago.
PROFIT vs.. Wages.
Think of the difference between {
contractors profits and the wages Of
a workingman.
One contractor in this town 1--WE ar
told by Mr.. Kohlsaat) has work pend
ing in various cities which will yiel
him seven hundred thousand dollar
profit this year. OF that vast sum, hov
much will ever come back to Chicago
citizens?
We are not criticising. A man ma
do with his money as he likes, an
we hope that particular contractor wi
make plenty, for his name Is Fuller an
he is inclined to side with the unio
workingmen.
But look at the facts. The contract
nf
lures, or foreign travel, governmen
bonds or gowns from Paris
Every dollar that the workingma
earns goes at once into the pockets Q
his fellow citizens.
Pay a wOrkingman two, or four, Q
six dollars day. All Of it goes to tn
butcher, baker. department store, ett
If he saves little it goes the same wa
when rainy day comes, or when h
dies and his family fall back on hi
hard savings.
The workman actually does the har
work. His is the small reward, an
every dollar that he gets, at once Der
efits the city and all it's inhabitants.
Labor's Atlmir rable Exam
You contractors, trying to force you
VIII upon chicago 3 WOIkmen, nave FOE
bed the city, the stores, all business,
at least one hundred thousand dollar
per day in actual cash.
You have checked the city's growt
You have made Chicago fall benin
You have discouraged capital fro
coming here-and it will take lor
time to wipe out the memory of tt
fight that you have brought on.
With it all, you have not succeede
in beating the Chicago workmen. f.
they are not your interiors. except
possession of cash. They are not le
courageous than you. They are mo
courageous. You have only seen yo1
profits dwindle; they have seen the
children hungry.
They have set an admirable examp
of good order to the country. Th,
have not strengthened your hands wi
any violence.
If violence does conceive hope it w
not. II you should manage to ke
twenty thousand men idle into the vi
ter. making them poorer and poor
until desperate-remember that v
J ~ fSa~ {5t.E 4g5t @ 4