Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-04-09
WORK FOR EVERY ONE.
And Yet Times Are Eard-.-Strikes Are Plenty And Coal DeaI-
 CTS Combine.

Are Plenty And Coal DeaI'
 CTS Combine.
 [ A man who makes a business or finding employment for men and Doys' told q Democrat reporter to-day tnaI he never found it so hard to secure ue- sirable help. He said that the demand for boys on farms is very great ana | that he knew of several good families who would be pleased to give homes and fair wages to boys who are Wiling to make themselves useful on 8 fafn, but it seemed to be very dlncu1t 10 convince 8 youngster to accept such -a position. Many of them, he clalmed, prefer to while their time away aoout the streets and live on thelr Io1Ks rather than try their luck on q 1arm' The same thing was true, he salds Wltn reference to the shops, foremen nnolng it pretty hard to get hold of the rgnt kind of help. They are constantly coming and going, so that while large numbers are out of employment, much trouble is experienced in hndlng enough to fill all the vacant places.
 Another man, an employer of laDof, said he was not sure but 1t would De better for the whole of us to go Dack to the old way of living, when a man could live on dollar a day with less effort than he can now on twice that "You can buy as much wood stand ing" he said "for dollar as would build a house, and yet look at Wnaf IL costs for the wood that goes to build small house. hy is this so? Simply because the price of labor has gone up so that the"cost of getting timber into shape for building purposes is altogetn- CT too high, and as 8 result the building boom that ought to be going on in Wa terbury has been nipped in the bud, and in a short time you will see rents take a big jump. They have got 10. People are not building and the popu- lation is increasing, and all have got to find some place to live in. I'm not op- posed to labor unions. On the con- trary, I think | can say that with strikes and boycotts and the demand for shorter day eliminated, I'm very much in favor of them."
 The reporter remarked that if they dropped all these they would be in the same position as the soldiers who went to fight for sport and threw away their
 
 ''No,'' said the gentleman, mot by any means, I can't see any sense in demand for an eight hour day. You ask hundred manufacturers and busi- ness men if they would not prefer to give an advance = wages than shorten the work day without any change in the wage schedule, and you'll find that 90 per cent of them will say yes. For Ixy1ln ia us at $3 a day for ten hours work and said he wanted an eight hour day at the same pay or an increase in wages and continue at his bench ten hours as usual, I should not hesitate q moment about giving the increase, that is pro- yided was obliged to do one or the other,
 '.The unions have done one thing that I am glad to see. They have taught employers that from now on they will find it to their advantage to treat their help with more considera- fion than some of them have been ac- customed to. The day has gone by when a boss can abuse q man, kick him out into the street and beckon to somebody else to come in and take his job without running the risk of rrlin- ing his business. I look upon this as a reform worth all it cost. You've got to use man right now else he won't stay with you, whether he belongs to a union or not. Of course, most en- ployers always used their hands right, but it is 3 fact that others didn't. But what I object to most of all in the unions is this business of telling man that he cannot work In certain places unless he has a union card, and then bOycotting him if he refuses to go into the organization. These things never will be tolerated in this country so long as capital and workmen of indepen- dence can hold out against them. Probably we'll have to bow to them, but if so I hope the time is long ways off"
 Asked what was the difference, so far as the principle was concerned. be- tween Workingmen boycotting those who refused to associate themselves with unions, and business men band ing together for a like purpose.
 Why" he replied, there's no diff ference. When you get one on me I'll admit it, but all the business men have not gone into that association, though l think they will in time, for believe they'll find it to their advantage. l don't believe it is the intention of the organization you refer to to harrass business man who decides to stay out of it; but unless I'm very much mis- taken, pretty soon the ones on the out side will want to come in. This may not be the best thing to do, and none of us regard it as solution of the labor question, but we hope it will serve as some sort of fertilization against unreasonable assaults until these things adjust themselves, which I expect to see them do in time. I be- 1ieve man Is master of his own labor and that he should have a right to dispose of it at 8 price to suit himself