The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-10-28
HERE'S WORK
FOR THOUSANDS
Laborers May Obtain Employment al
Better Wages Than Ever Before.
CITY IS SECURED FOR MEN
SHORTAGE is GROWING WORSE
INSTEAD OF BETTER.

Never in the history Of Salt Lake
nave more good jobs gone begging for
want Of laborers than at present:
never such an abundance Of work al
white mems wages" and so few
laoorers. The abnormal condition
which has existed for some time is
bfoWing worse rather than better, and
thefe is no indication that relief Is
near On the one hand axe railroad
contractors, mine and smelter super
lntendents with their hands out
stretched for laborers; on the other are
the employment agents of this city and
ogden, unable to fill 1 per cent of the
orders on hand.
In a nutshell the facts are these;
over 1000 men could be given work
within forty-eight hours al better
wages than heretofore paid for the
same class OF work but so greatly have
state projects already drawn on re-
serve forces that there are no laborers
10 be found.
NJ. ]. Dixon, Of the firm of Dixon &
Co, has been in the employment
agency business here for five years.
This is what he says.
Better wages are being offered tight
now than any time in my knowledge.
but we simply can't get laboring men.
We are in a strait and the same is
true of every other labor agency in this
city. To such eXtremdties have con-
tractors been reduced for want of help
that they have even stationed men On
the street here and i'm ogden to pick
out the unemployed and offer them
Jobs. They have. as in the case Of the
contractors for the Big Cottonwood
conduit excavation, advertised on their
own account and maintained a labor
bureau in their own local office.
Proof of Better Wages.
Here are letters from different par
ties having Western Pacific sub-con-
tracts. See the wages that they offer:
day,
'Four-horse teamsters, s2.5O per
day:
And concludes the letter. if we
get good teamsIeTs we will treat them
right This means that they are will
ing 10 do even better for teamsterS
who give satisfaction. The standard
heretofore for a four-hoUrse teamster
has been 1925, for two-horse teamsters.
s..
Here we have an order from Ritter
twelve miles distant. for laborers. The
Jobs are good for the winter and the
WAGES the best. But we can't get the
men. Ii is not that the men prefer TO
work in this place or that. The men
who are willing 10 work simply aren't 10
be found. Lasge jobs have already put
so many TO work that the city is
practically cleaned out
"Home Guards Won't Work.
"Of course there are the home
guards who simply hang around the
street ami won't work. These are not
really the kind of men who are worth
anything as laborers, but even they
won't be recruited.
but 10 say that a man who wishes
10 get work at white mems wages
can't Is rot. To show you how the
wage scale is at present I'll call YOUR
attention TO the fact that where
Auspians could be obtained for $l.60
per day a year ago they are now Of
fered 81 and S2.25.
NO one REGRETS more than l the
necessity Of employing Japs, especially
on a work of public nature. But I
heartily agree with the contractor for
the conduit excavation that he did
right in employing Japs after he had
tried in vain TO get white labor. There
can be no quarrel on this point. No
man is going to decline Jap labor if