Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-12
LABOR SITUATION IN FRISCO
1t Must Be Cleared Before Owners
Will Begin Permanent
Reconstruction
From the San Francisco CHI

From the San Francisco Chronicle.
The class A buildings already con-
structed represent, as left by the fire,
Investments so large that they will
probably be restored as soon as pos
sible, whatever the cost. Very likely
now and then a venturesome person
may start new work of that kind. The
majority Of owners will not do so. They
will lease their land or put up shacks.
No owner can figure out a profit in
renting buildings constructed at pres
ent cost, and until they can there will
be very little building. A day or two
ago we gave an instance where certain
stone work had originally cost in
round numbers $4,000, but for re-
placing it the lowest offer was, in
round numbers, $4,000. That was a
very extreme case and seems hardly
credible, but we had the owner of the
property for authority. Here is a def
mite case which any one can verify
The original cost of all the marble work
of the Merchants Exchange building
was SIPS, 900. There was a salvage of
the marble amounting to $4,000. The
new material and the replacing of that
saved should, therefore, cost 100000,
at wages and prices prevailing before
the fire. The lowest bid for it was
1857 000-an increase of 67 per cent
There is as much marble as ever. The
freight rates are unchanged. What is
the cause of this advance of 67 per
cent? 1t is either in labor or in con-
tractors profits, and contractors insist
that not only are they making no more
money than formerly, but that they
hardly dare take contracts at any price.
not knowing what prices they may
have to pay for labor. Some contract
ors are refusing to do business except
at owners risk of higher labor prices.
afrrl,f Ill
squarely in the face. San Francisco
will not be permanently rebuilt while
labor conditions remain as they are
because tenants cannot pay the rents
which will be required. There will be
no trouble about our jobbing trade and
foreign commerce, for that business can
be done in shacks, but our activity
within the city must cease with the
completion of temporary work. Indus
tries certainly will not locate here to be
in continual warfare with their en-
ployes or else make the cost of their
product too high to enable 1t to he sold
in competition with other manufacture
ing cities. The people of this city, and
especially the labor unions, must look
the situation in the face, and do it now.
Plans for a great number of class A
| buildings are in preparation. Some have
advanced to the contracting point, but
| the contracts are not being let One
large property owner ID. o. Mills, who
has cash in abundance, but who does not
live ir this city, says that he can en-
ploy his money in the east to far better
advantage than to reconstruct his
buildings here al present prices, and
that is what he is doing. A great num-
her of leases have already been made,
because the owners themselves were too
proud to put up shacks, and did not
care to bother with them. Shacks can
ray good ground rents, but contribute
| little to the labor market-and nothing
to the appearance of the city.
Before the fire wages were higher
than in any Other commercial city I'm
the world, and living was cheaper than
in any other large city i'm the United
States 1t was the paradise of labor,
and yet the city was prosperous. Rec
ognizlng that fact the Building Trades
council made public pledge that
wages in the building trades should
not be increased. SO far as we know,
that pledge still. stands and stands un-
redeemed. The Building Trades coun-
ell, II we have correctly kept the run
| of its action, stands committed to the
wage scale as it existed before the fire,
and many, and perhaps most of its
| component unions, stand officially COM
mltted to a higher scale. Who Is au-
thorized to speak for the unions? is
anybody so authorized? What assur-
ance has a contractor or owner that
after he has started a building. TO cost
100000, there will not be rise I'm ma
terials and labor which will make It
cost $150.000 or more? Those things
must be settled before permanent
building will begin on any important
scale, and so settled that there can be
no misunderstanding. OF course, labor
is not the only factor In the rise, but It
Is the most important, for all material,
except the natural products of the
earth, Is labor There are those I'm con-
troll of materials, however. who are
seeking to unduly profit at our expense,
and they also must understand that
Iltheir prices will not long be paid.