The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-02-16
JACK ROSS STIRRED THEM Up,
THE NEW YORK BRICKLAYER
VINO SURPRISED THE BRITISH,
Superiority OF American Methods Shown
In Building the Westinghouse Plant
The Daily Task OF Bricklayers In.
creased From $50 70 800 Bricks.

In Building the Westinghouse Plant
The Daily Task OF Bricklayers In.
creased From ~ TO $500 Bricks.
Alexander Stewart, who, with his bronI-r,
has the contract for building the Westing-
house electric plant at Manchester, Eng
land, was at the Waldorf-Astoris last week.
While there he added some details TO the
story sent over by cable of the way he
made the Manchester b~ricklayers hustle.
THE reasons of the peculiar and very
unfortunate conditions that hold in England
as regards labor ara twofold," said Mr..
Stewart. in the first place, the labor
unions rave got the employers there bluffed
to a ~standstill. Another reason Is that
the employer In England takes no interest
whatever in his laborer; never comes in
contact with him: treats him as a mere
automaton. There is no incentive what
ever to the individual laborer TO do good
work.
when we went to England to take the
contract our arrangement was subject 10
the approval Of the council Of the English
compan and we were told that In the due
order Of proceedings in England that body
would hardly act under two weeks. Be-
fore going to London to appear before IL
We went to Manchester 10 look over the
ground. I think when We appeared before
the Council in London they were a good deal
surprised to find out how much VI had
learned.
when we told them what We would
undertake to do they said that 1t was i'm
possible, that we would be at odds with
the labor unions at the outset and find
ourselves blocked on every hand. They
asked us how we managed our w~orkingmen.
" told them we came In personal con-
tact with them as much as we could and
tried TO know as many Of them personally
as possible and 40 endeavored to get into
them something like a live interest In the
work in hand.
This was received with amazemen mt
and with anything but approval. We
soon afterward retired to an adjoining
room while the council considered our
propositions. The discussion was quite
warm. We could hear the voice Of the
chairman, a certain nobleman, raised In
earnest protest against us.
.It will nevah do" he cried. 'nevahl We
cannot let these Americans In here with
their ideahs Of personal contact with labor
ers. We cannot do itv
But we had some friends there as well
as opponents and they carried the day
for us. Within an hour we were called
In and the business that We were old would
take two weeks was ended.
The way VI got a move on the brick
LAYING pace was because we brought a
New York bricklayer over. Jack Ross
was his name and he was chain lightning
at laying bricks. We made him fore
mar and gave him $3.50 a month and the
way he hustled things was delightful.
1T was not the slo west man in the bunch
that set the pace after Jack Ross took
hold. That had been the custom hereto
fore, but Jack BOOT convinced than that
that custom was a dead one. Jack set
the pace himself at first and his gait made
them dizzy for a time.
Then they soon caught the oontaeion
and from $50 bricks a day We had them
laying 1 800. And there was not the slightest
kicking or friction about 1t In the end al
though naturally there was more or less
grumbling among the union mossbacks.
we did have trouble with the union but
It was about another matter and did not
cause us an hours loss Of time. 1t was
over the mighty question Of dinner. As
you know up in that latitude the hours Of
ds Wight are very short in winter. The
men had been having a full hour In the
middle Of the day for dinner. We deter
mined TO cut this down TO half ar hour
THE men would not agree to this and We
had a strike on our hands. Now there are
two b~ricklayers' unions in England and
their relations are by no means over cor
dial, Tho headquarters of the rival union
was in Liverpool.
$50 we sent a man up 70 Liverpool and he
explained the full situation and asked II
the men Of that union wanted the job In
case those who now had 1t threw 1t up.
The reply was that the Liverpool men
would jump to take 1t.
when the whistle blew at 1870 O'Clock
on the day we made the change not one OF
our old men showed up. Some OF them
were hanging around 20 see what would
happen, and what they saw was 200 men
quietly fling in to take their places. We
had no trouble beyond that