The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-05-13

! way interests there and the government Of
afTairs in the whole city has, IL eeems, been
practically surrendered TO the labor agi-
tators. 1t is a very hard thing TO say but
it 10 nevertheless q just conclusion that at
the present time investment In any San
Francisco enterprise has become unsafe
according to the conservative standards In
suoh matters commonly accepted In the
East; and should there not be IN amend
ment in the situation in San Francisco a
withdrawal Of Eastern capital from the
city Is practically bound to come. It is not
at all improbable that the Union Iron Works.
the great shipbuilding plant In San Fran
cisco. will be abandoned by its owners to
those who will take 1t and agree to liquidate
the mortgage Indebtedness upon 1t; and a
similar state of hopeleBsness concerning
matters there Is felt by all people having
property rights at stake. In our own city
the s~tevedores' strike has not up TO the
present time figured In any way as a stock
market influence. although II 1t continues IL
cannot help doing 30, since the railways
cannot long keep up delivering goods at the
steamship docks that cannot be loaded Int
the steamships cannot long keep coming
iLko port with cArgoes that cannot be taken
llOlh NAlclli IN - U . AAsASbSS
upon the financial and business situation In
this country to which altogether insufficient
attention has been paid In printed discus
sion Of thel subject. and that 10 the effect
upon business OF the ~unquestioned reduo-
ton that has taken place In our land
during the last two or thr0e years In
the standard Of a days work. No II
can talk for any length OF time with the
heads Of railway corporations. with Lead
ing bankers or with other individuals who
who are In q position 70 be really familiar
with the shairs Of great corporate enter
prises and not be impressed with the
fact that these men, almost without exc
ception, attribute responsibility for the
larger share Of whatever change for the
worse in general business conditions that
has recently appeared TO the Immense
lowering that has taken place in the eff
cheney Of labor. BY this Is meant partly
that laboring men. especially those belong
ing to labor unions, have been enabled
to enforce eNtortionate demands for the
price of their work, partly that hours Of
work have been 80 reduced as TO make 1t
impossible for railways and factories and the
like to keep up with the amount Of new bust
ness offering, but chiefly that laboring men
are unwilling to work as hard and as we'll
as they formerly did even with the increase
in their pay and the reduction Of their
hours OF toll, The case is. as outlined by
critics than whom none could be better
qualified as such. that the railways n
manufactures Of the country have been
trying in the last year or 80 to do 30 per
cent. more business with labor 20 per cent.
less efficient than before. II seems to be the
old story over again that where wealth
accumulates men decay. For q few years
after the distress and penury Of the years
from 1892 to 1897 the laboring men OF the
country were willing to work gladly when
they could get work; and when later their
wages were increased as the enlarging
prosperity Of the country began to make
itself felt they did not at all abate their
cheerfulness nor was the efficiency of their
work diminished. But as all this pros
perity became more pronounced. as men at
work in every department Of great indus-
try began TO taste the pleasures Of larger
pay and lower hours OF labor and began to
realize that all over the country there were
practically two jobs Offering for every man
that could be found to fill them their dis
content with their lot appeared to be height
ened instead OF being allayed and they
began to work when they did work in a
more lazy and less eficaoious manner.
For all this it must be admitted there is
only one true remedy; and 1t is because Of
a clear even il unwilling recognition that
such a state Of affairs has come to pass
that the heads OF more than one great
business establishment in our land have
been looking for several months back at a
prospect Of some rela xation in business
activity with less dismay than they other
wise would.