Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-13
SKHLFU
WORKMEN
MDEMAND
INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS ARE
REVIEWED
EXPERT DECLARES GOOD MEN
ALWAYS NEEDED
Specialist Who Has Made Deep Study
Of Employment Problem Writes
Interesting Article on
Subject
BY H. Il. wEsTGATE

Few people Stop to consider just why
a competent employe should receive 500
a month in New York or Chicago and
possibly only $7b or $50 in Los Angeles.
Living expenses are higher here. they
will argue, and, /. consequently wages
should be In proportion.
Many conditions affect the wage earn
err Where the climate Is ideal, where
good schools and pleasant surroundings
are to be found on every hand, where
thousands are attracted by sea breezes
and palm-lined avenues and where winter
is never known, there wages are bound
to be comparatively lower. even though
living expenses are higher than else
where.
In short, to tell the whole story in
nutshell, supply and. demand regulate
wages just as sure as supply and de-
mand regulate the price of potatoes and
beefsteak. Thousands come to Los An
geles because of poor health, or, as Is
often the case, because of the poor health
of some member of the family. Then,
too, thousands come here simply because
: they are attracted by the climate and
wish to live In a city where every ad-
vantage Is to be found and snow and
frost are unknown.
Few Remain Idle
Once here 1t is natural for the wage
Garner to seek employment. Whether he
has been accustomed to office work or
manual labor, whether he has held po-
sition as bookkeeper stenographer, sales
man. electrician, er sineer or hod carrier
he at once starts campaign OF investi-
cation with the object in view of landing
a job"
And, 1t might be added, even those
who are possessed of an income or an
amount of cash sufficient to keep them
without applying for a position do not
deem 1t wise to remain idle Thus to
the wage earners' class is added the mod
erately wealthy class, who also want to
be doing something, even though their
brain or muscle only earn small salary.
Add to this condition the fact that Los
Angeles is not, comparatively speaking,
manufacturing city, and you have the
direct cause of existing conditions In the
local wage earners' market
Good Men in Demand
However, good men are always in de-
mand everywhere. Thousands of compe-
tent brainy, honest and painstaking men
and women are earning good salaries In
| Los Angeles The time has never come
| and probably never will come when top
notchers will not be In demand, whether
| the applicant seek position in New York,
Chicago, Los Angeles or Oshkosh.
| To be sure the lines are drawn trifie
| closer In 6Oulu6TH SdlllOIiid thdlt Ill th0
| east; that is to say, where so many COM
petent people are to be found the business
men weed them out more closely than
| where good men are scarce, but the real
deserving man generally finds place
| eventually at a wage that will support
him nicely, even though fancy salaries
are the exception and not the rule.
1t has been my experience that those
| most in demand are competent bookkeep-
| ers, stenographers, statesmen, sales wo-
men, managers for various departments
| in the large department stores, electri-
clans, plumbers engineers hotel and cafe
! help and those Who go to make up the
great army of house help.
Mattresses Are Independent
Perhaps the most independent person in
Los Angeles is the hotel or cafe waitress.
Always in demand. always able to COM
mand $S or $40 week, chance to make
as much more in tips" and her board as
well, the waitress picks her position and
changes from seashore to mountains as
she chooses.
And this very fact. it can safely be
added, is responsible for the daily changes
that are made in Southern California
eating houses. Los Angeles being the
metropolis of the southwest naturally at
tracts thousands of hotel people, and
from here they branch out in all direc-
lions, GOING wherever Tue
are the most congenia, and where tips"
are the most plentiful.
Right here it might be well to add that
those who frown upon a positio as wait
ress, choosing an office position or place
III a department store for less money,
often show poor judgment. For be 1t
known that department store saleswomen
who make a success of the business and
reach the top of the ladder are few and
far between as compared with those who
earn from $l2 to $40 week and their
board by ACTING as mattresses. But even
this well established fact fails to attract
sufficient number of mattresses to fill
the demand. while department. stores are
flooded with applications COMPOSITIONS.
Department Store Positions
1 do not mean to say that success is
not in store for successful saleswomen,
but rather to show that 1t is safer to
accept place where individuality is
not absolutely necessary. On the
other hand, Los Angeles department
stores have hundreds of saleswomen on
their pay rolls who receive from SIS to
$50 week for their services. These
are the exception, of course, but many
of them become so proficient in their
respective lines that good salaries are
cheerfully paid them.
Tact, honesty, close application to