The San Francisco call., 1903-09-14
THE GOOSE AND THE GOLD EGG
- HE only cloud above the financial horizon IS
the prospective withdrawal of capital from

I II
the prospective withdrawal of capital from
L constructive enterprises
Construction of railroads and buildings is form
of production 1t goes back to the raw material, the
ore hux and fuel to produce metal and the stone
and the clay the lead and the fax plant that COM
bine in paint and to the various pigments used; to
the silica and soda for glass, and to the timber IN It's
various forms that enters into construction and to
the skilled processes by which each is reduced to use
ful form When construction is planned it promotes
all activities clear back the primitive forms OF all
the materials used. When construction ceases those
activities cease and then is the paralysis of non use
That paralysis call hard times Its effects tall
first and hardest upon labor, for construction being
form of production that stimulates all other forms
by its consumption OF them is the goose that lays
the golden egg for labor Therefore labor should be
advised kill that goose, for it is now chasing
her around the national barnyard in hand to cut
off her head and rip her open.
Already the railroads Of the United States have
announced their abandonment of construction planned
for next year that called for the payment OF $8oooo
ooo giving as a reason the burdens laid upon such
production by the labor situation. In New York
buildings planned for erection next year at cost
of 500 100000 and buildings in Chicago TO cost So,
600 900 are abandoned for the same reason. Owners
OF such prospective buildings and contractors for their
erection find it unsafe to proceed, for they don't
know when they may touch a live wire in the labor
situation
| The proceedings OF Murphy, Parks and the other
walking delegates who have been sentenced to the
penitentiary in New York for bribery and extorton
have revealed labor situation in which no investor
is safe The calling of strikes to extort money for
the pocket of the walking delegate has inflicted enor-
nous losses upon contractors and property owners
/ Ill
ton 1t is exterminated utterly whenever has put
upon it greater burdens than bear When rail
roads charge freight upon any article high that
its value is exhausted in passing from producer to
consumer that production ceases. Union labor hav
ing put upon construction greater burden than it
| can bear that form OF production ceases
It is not only the planned $3Iooooooo Of railroad
construction and building in New York and Chicago
that will be exterminated but the blight will fall
upon construction everywhere and in every city. In
Chicago the owner OF building under construction
was notified by the labor unions concerned to change
contractors and take one that the unions dictated
when the work was half finished. This exaction
submitted to- Then the owner was compelled to
pay to the unions fine Of ST. per thousand on the
brick that had been used in the building and the work
was suspended until this exaction submitted to-
There were reasons given beyond an exhibit OF
! the power to enforce the demands MADE. In THIS
way the cost OF construction has been increased and
progress hampered until investors and contractors
are tired of the risk and so they will quit
Investors in business buildings in cities arrange
their leases in advance. Their prospective in
turn arrange to give up their present quarters and
the landlord in his turn arranges for new essees.
In countless these errac interruptions OF
struction so drag the completion of buildings
that the time limit of the leases expires, but the
prospective lessees have agreed to give up their pres
ent quarters and their successors are waiting to take
them; so it occurs that thrown out OF bust
and have to sacrifice their stock and suffer great
loss and in some ruin all by OF the in
reference OF the walking delegate with construction.
1t IS case of putting upon that form of production
greater burden than will bear, and the loss goes
back and bghts all dependent forms of production,
and so hard times begin.
1t was hoped that union labor would be admon-
ished by the exposure of Murphy Parks and other
walking delegates. But instead of that the unions
have voted to them the same confidence and leader
ship in convict stripes that they enjoyed in plain
clothes, and this has been the determining OF
the canceling of $50 100000 in contracts for
structive production.