Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-03-19
THE CITY WORK
Out of Town Contractors Offer
 the Lowest Rates.

The COmmlJlee dppoihtou pJ 'n board of public works to consider the advisability of giving certain kinds of city work to local laborers in preference to men from out or town, met yesterday afternoon at the mayors office and discussed the subject for an hour or more, ana then adjourned without reaching any conclusion with reference to the Waterville job. but they did agree that the grading of Clark street be done under the supervision of the superintendent of the street depart ment, the work to be confined to citizens of Waterbury. According to estimates submitted, 1t would cost anywhere from $10,000 to $15,OOO more to do Waterville and Homer streets by the day than the city will have to pay the lowest responsible bidder, MT Blakeslee of New Haven Besides this, the streets are close to the railroad and to houses and as there will be a great deal of blasting the danger of damage suits Is some thing to be considered. The street department is not equipped to do that class of work and it has also been stated that it could not be done by anybody in Waterbury for Blakes- lees figures.
 Another thing that enters into the matter Is that there appears to be strong prejudice in certain quarters against employing residents of Wa terbury to do public work. If you say a word in favor of such thing you are singled out as sentimental ist, demagogue or something worse, and as consequence most people prefer to avoid this sort of notoriety and let things go along in the old way. The same thing was said about sidewalks when people were paying two prices for that class of work. It was charged that If the city did it, politicians would get hold of it and rob the taxyapers. The new law has been tried and under It's provision a property owner gets a better walk for dollar, with It's own citizens doing the work than It ever got from outside for fifty cents more per yard and yet you meet good citizens who would prefer to see the work done by somebody from Mas sachusetts, New York or some place anybody, but man whose face is familiar to them.
 Looked at from every standpoint the com, lite could~ not see any show of escaping the assaults of so called economists and non-parti- sans preachers so that in all prob ability although Waterbury men to the number of 5000 or 4,000 are now in the market with their labor and offering it at fire sale prices, you find men all around who think it better to buy from somebody in New Haven, because, perhaps, the article may possibly be shade cheaper. But it should be remem- bered that everybody does not look at things this way. One of the larg- est employers of labor in the Nauga tuck valley. man who has had something to do with city affairs, told a Democrat reporter quite re- gently that he hoped the city would not permit dollar to go out of Wa, terbury this year for labor that 1t can keep at home, and there you are.
 You hear men say look out for the city. What is the city but the peo- pie? Then, again, somebody in- quires what about the taxpayers. Talk with the taxpayers to-day and find out what they have to say. Hundreds in all parts of the town have not received dollar in rent from their tenants this year and don't expect anything in the near future. The rent that has been withheld because the tenants were forced into involuntary idleness, the landlords intended to turn over to the collector and those who hold mortgages on their property, and while 1t is but fair to assume that both will wait, the interest will keep piling up right along. Now, then, if every unemployed man in Wa terbury should be put to work to- morrow and kept hustling until next fall. wouldn't the taxpayers profit by such course? Almost any man will answer this in the affirmative, but too many throw in if and ands about politics, sentiment. favoritlsm and so forth, with the result that Lllltlu lOihS Wnl anu NHe. WOTh BOtS out of town. But this is all to no purpose. The abuse will come to an abrupt termination when all the peo- pie learn to look upon labor the same as any other commodity and counsel trading with the home deal CT for labor as we'll as other things. What a shout of indignation would go up from all sections of the town If the city needed s30.0OO or s4O,- 900 worth of merchandise and de- cided to buy it in New York and pay more for it than they could get 1t for fin Waterbury. Why, the men who would do such a thing would be mobbed and the leading citizens of the town would be loudest in con- demnation of such methods. And yet that Is exactly what Waterbury is doing right along so far as labor is concerned and when anybody calls attention to it he is lucky to be let