The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1902-03-08

Practical Side of the Labor Question.
After having listened to the pro-
ceedings of the open meeting, held
by the different labor unions at the
court room on Wednesday evening,
the writer is led to believe that per-
haps the most important question,
that of What effect will the recent.
actions of the labor unions have upon
the growth and prosperity of our city
during the coming year" has been en-
tirely overlooked.
The unfortunate and perhaps OBJ
jectionable feature of any labor union
is the great and continual amount of
unreliable and irresponsible street |
talk INDUCED in by thoughtless mem
bers of the different unions, which |
is often carried to the extremity of
making threats, the authority for
which never came from the lodge |
room of any union, the result of this
is to spread a feeling of doubt and
uncertainty among those who contem-
plate building or making other i'm
provements during the coming sea-
son: but if we will drop this feature
of the question and look at what the
increased rate of wages and shorter
hours demanded by the different
unions actually mean to the prospec-
| tive builder from the standpoint of
dollars and cents, l think that the
situation will have a more cheerful
| look
After having carefully Investigated
this feature of the question, | feel
prepared to state that the increased
cost of building or making other i'm
provements, including the increase in
the cost of materials, labor, ETC., will
in nearly all cases not exceed three
and one-half per cent, and in the most
extreme cases five per cent over the
cost of building during the past year,
an item of cost which when fully I'M
derstood should cause no one to hest
tate who has planned to make i'm
provements during the coming sea-
son, and from my knowledge of the
people of Kalispell I know that they
will not object to a reasonable ad-
vance in wages when the request is
made in a reasonable and business
like manner put an increase in
wages can never result from street
corner threats.
The question of shorter hours is
one that should require no discus
sion; wherever tried the results have
been perfectly satisfactory to both
the employer and employee
Perhaps the worst enemy that
skilled labor has in Kalispell comes
from those who seem determined to
out do or under bid others, many of
the bids which are made for work in
this city, show that the contractor
has either been extremely careless
and has not carefully considered the
E work and the cost of the same or that
he has willfully skinned the price of
both labor and material and then
made a deduction for fear that he
l might not get the job. If contractors
would be more careful in estimating
the cost of labor and materials and
figure the same wages for themselves
that they would demand from an
other contractor, and add a reasona-
) BILE percentage for incidentals. there
would be little trouble from this
source and in the end it would give
better satisfaction to the owner. I'm
I less there is a remedy found along
: these lines it will require little study
| to tell how long the unions will last,
, and many of the class which l now
refer to are members of the labor
unions.
The success or failure of the labor
unions in this city rests with their
! own members. Let your actions be
guided by care and discretion, trans
act your business within the lodge
: room, instruct your members to be
= more careful in their statements OF
e lwhat the union PROPOSES to do, dc
1inot allow yourselves to become the
dupes of any politician or political
: party, but by your actions merit the
4 approval of the people, and success
is sure. AN OBSERVER.