Waterbury Democrat., 1902-11-07
BUREAU OF ENGINEERING.
Business Being Rushed to Complete
Work Before Bad Weather Comes.

ouSlueSS DelHS huoHcu W CoHpiCtS
Work Before Bad Weather Comes.
Business is rushing in the ONCE of
the bureau of engineering and there
will be no let up on it until the real
bad weather sets in. At the present
time the department is pushing work
on nine contracts. besides answering
calls for stakes for curbs and making
surveys for layouts in different sections
of the city. The contracts on hand are
the construction of sewers in Willard,
Green, West Main and Willow streets;
storm water conduits in Bronson, West
Main and Ridgewood streets and Sun
nyside avenue; concrete arch over
Great brook at Farm street. A force
of men is occupied surveying East
Main street from Silver street to the
Mad River and another performing a
similar work on Highland avenue from
West Main street to Bank street, a
distance of nearly mile. Surveys are
also being made on several streets on
Ben Mohr and other places.
The contractors employed on the diff
ferent jobs, as well as those on other
work, all complain of the difficulty in
I securing good workmen at any price.
They claim that at no time in the his
! tory of Waterbury was there such a
scarcity of common laborers about
town and that if things continue that
way the city departments as well as
other corporations will suffer. One
contractor said to-day that with the
exception of few old men all the
| English speaking people have
| disappeared from the outdoor
labor market. and that the
same thing will soon be true of the
/ Italians. THE factories" he said.
swere rather slow in getting hold Of
the Italians, but if you had an oppor-
tunity to look over the payrolls Of some
of the shops now you might be sur
prised to find the Number of that class
of help on their books. After the Ital-
ians throw down the pick and shovel
and get into the shops and stores. do
not know what class of labor will fill
their places. The men who will sue
coed them have not yet put in an ap-
/ pearance but they may show up bye
and bye. 1t was different some years
j ago, when the Irish tired of this kind
Of work and commenced scurrying
about for something better. We had
large numbers of Italians begging jobs
4 without much regard as to what wages
they received, so that while we eX
perienced some trouble in changing
i from one class of labor to another still
we had such an abundance Of the new
kind we didn't mind it because If one
crowd didn't suit us we could let them
go and take on others. We can't dc
that now. If the ones we have STOP
they refuse to allow others to take theil
places and you have to come to terms
i with them or go out of business youl.
Z self The worst of it is that ever
when there is no friction between {
contractor and his help he cannot gel
i enough men in the busy season. AMI
for this reason some of us found our
selves in a bad box during the pas
summer. What would we have done il
the cost of bnilding material was righ
and people who are waiting to cree
houses wanted to buildY
This, of course, is an employers view
of the situation, but some of the Ia
borers say that while there is good
share of work going on and demand
Il for workmen, still it is hard to get (;
steady job. They claim they lose 81
much time on account of bad weather
and other causes that position in thu
factories at considerably less than thu
outside employers pay amounts to more
the year round, and for this reason ;
man who gets 50 or 1926 per day fol
carrying hod takes the first oppor
tunity to throw the box aside and pu
on a clean apron at the bench in on,
of the shops.