The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-06
THIS GREAT CITY, NEW YORK.
II Wants the Best In the Labor Market
and Pays the Highest fer II.

and Pays the Highest fer II.
In this great city Of New York the men
who work at plain ordinary trades receive
higher wages, work under more favorable
conditions and labor for . shorter period
daily than in any other city in the United
States. At the same time 1t may be said
that labor here is continually demanding
higher wages and more privileges and
getting both.
New York cannot brook delay in having
it's work done, so 1t is often easier to settle
a strike than to fight labor's demands,
however outrageous they may be-. and
submit TO the consequent loss Of time In
finishing the job in hand That the workers,
in their frantic attempts to get the whole
pie, leave any of it to the employers Is only
accounted for by the superb organization
OF every enterprise carried on here and
the enormous volume Of business done.
Every once in while the prediction is
made that the city's employers cannot keep
it up; but they do. New York has become
80 important trade centre. 1t ia 90 easy OF
access for all supplies and 30 ready to pay
for the best article In the market that en-
ployers think long time before moving to
another locality where lower wages can DO
paid with an apparent increase in profit
And meantime the workers receive their
full share OF the city's prosperity.
Take the building trades New York pays
to.masons and bricklayers eS cents an hour
for an eight-hour work day. This means
a weekly wage Of more than $50. In
Chicago, where labor is supposed to be as
scarce and dear as In any centre In this
country similar workers received only b
cents an hour. or nearly IS a week less,
till April, this year. They have since raised
the rate five cents an hour Philadelphia
pays only so cents an hour. Buffalo, Gin
cinnati, Providence and Detroit even less.
That is a fair sample. Iron workers. re-
ceive sex cents an hour, which is exactly
SGT a week; plasterers 80 week; plumbers,
steamfitters, painters and electricians, ~
a week, each having an eight-hour work
day. This Is from . to 80 q week higher
than in other cities Unskilled laborers
receive rs cents an hour--that u, with ten
hour work day, SIS week.
The same high standard Of wages ex-
tends through every sort OF occupation.
Clerks who in other cities receive ~ SiO
and &l2 a week, according TO the degree OF
their usefulness, are paid 80, Sla and DO
a week here. These, however, compose
the cheapest class Of office workers. New
York in proportion to the number OF such
workers in it, in spite OF the strong COM
petition in this branch OF the labor market.
has more clerks and bookkeepers earning
from $50 to $50 a week, because they I'LL
places OF trust, than any other city IN the
country.
Even the street car employees once re-
parded as unskilled laborers, earn moro
money in this city than anywhere else. It
Is the ambition of every motorman and com
ductor in any town in the East to get Job
with the Metropolitan Street Railway Com
pany here, and the company has the pick
of the labor market to choose from.
1t cannot be said that the labor unions
have conferred this boon on labor, though
New York has become the home OF trades
unionism. II that were so the clerks and
the Metropolitan Street Railway Com
panv's men would have to be left out OF
consideration And it is not, either, that
the cost Of living in the great city Is 80 much
greater that it has forced wages up. for
evidence is abundant that men can live
here, il they wish to do 80. almost as cheaply
as in any other city in the United States.
The reason for It is that work in New
York is better organized. that the city has
become the centre OF the prosperity OF q
country full fed with good times; that the
oity wants the best and only the best, and
ont of its abundance is willing to pay for
it-that New York is the best market exist
ing for everything men have to sell, labor
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