The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-09-03
LOCAL MANUFACTURERS CONFRONTED BY SERIOUS SITUATION AS RELIABLE HELP
 CAN NOT BE OBTAINED
SCOUTS SENT HERE LURE AWAY
 MECHANICS BY FAIRY TALES
Rival Concern Succeeds In Getting Expert Hands to Leave Loco Factory Thousands of Hands Can
 Find Employment In this Busy City

The manufacturers of this city are ,ecomfng alarmed over the labor situation Since times began to inn prove and big orders started pouring In there has been general resumption of work in practically every line of industrial endeavor and a call has gone out for skilled help for which there is a great demand by many of the local industries. Daily the situa- ton is becoming more acute and not few of the manufacturers here face a serious loss in business if they do not succeed in getting artisans cap able of turning out the work.
 The Manufacturers Association of this city has been officially apprised of existing conditions and those employ CTS who are members of the associa- tion and who are in sore straits be- cause they can not find skilled help arc anxious that something be done Without delay.
 Bridgeport, however is not alone in this quandary for practically every manufacturing city in the land has a like complaint. Some of the emplor-- CTS in other parts of the country have to city picking up all of the available mechanics they can find. The Loco- mobile Company of this city has felt the result of these visitations in the
 
 whose services they needed at this time.
 A rival automobile industry situated in Lansing. Michigan. sent an agent away number of first class mechanics by the plausible tale he outlined. He painted Lansing as the modern Utopia, a city where labor and capital get Invited to doff it's overalls and jackets and come out and attend the. pink teas of capital. The men. who like Joe, the ostler's wife. listened and were tempted. relinquished their positions : here and receiving their car fare left for the city in the Wolverine state where they expect to find their future life one grand sweet song" But they are apt to return some day singing another tune for Lansing in the win ter time-well if Dr. Cook only knew he need not have gone so far to find the North Pale.
 However. the agent of the Lansing auto concern did his part. He got the skilled help he was after and no doubt he Is now engaged in similar quests in other New England cities. It is only B few days since that a local manu- featuring concern found that man and was making strides in his mis- sion, that of hiring the men for plant in Bethlehem. The story he told of Bethlehem would make one almost
 
 like there as the town immortalized in the life of the Nazarene. Of course every Intelligent workingman knows that Bethlehem is scene of almost contucus labor disorrde and if there exists one place in the industrial mart of America that resembles Hades at it's worst it is this Keystone State town of the biblical name. Perhaps 1t was tentive ear to the tales of the seducer. that the fellow was discovered and summari1y disposed of before he had met with much success.
 It behooves the workingmen of this city who are permanently located and whose relations with their employers are agreeable to think hard before they are lured away from their home asso- citations by the fulsome plaudits ex- plotted by the mencenary representa- well for each mechanic turned in to those employing them.
 To say nothing of the expense of breaking up a home and leaving as- sociations that time can hardly re- place, the toiler is oft times confront ed with other obstacles which he may not give sufficient thought to when what appears like a fine proposition is first put up to him. It is a duty which every man owes to himself and to his family to better his condition in life without regard to the feelings of those whose only interest in his well fare is the amour tof profit they can take out of his hide. The purpose of man or woman from receiving @ more compensatory return for the labor which they have to sell.
 What we want to impress upon them is that it is far better to stick to what they know to be dependable and agree able to their talents than fly to some unknown fields concerning which they know absolutely nothing save what is manufactured for their consumption by some glib tongued chap who is working solely in the interest of his own pocket. Promises of higher wages are worth considering every time, but no sensible man will jump at an offer from a stranger without first making sure that conditions are what they are represented to be.
 Bridgeport is one of the finest cities in America for the toiling class. It is a suburb, almost, of the greatest of all American cities and it's own inn mediate suburbs which are rapidly opening up new home sites cannot be excelled for health and picturesque ness anywhere. It is situated on and has a fine and commanding view of a great arm of the Atlantic ocean. It has fine schools and it lacks little if anything in the line of amusements. There may be better places to live and work in this land than Bridgeport, but If there are then a place in the Hall of Fame awaits the first man or wO- man who discovers them.
 The Farmer was told today on the authority of the Manufacturers Asso- citation that there Is steady work here for hundreds of skilled hands. There will be found here places for the friends of any Bridgeporter now work ing elsewhere providing he is equipped for the work required of him. From the same source we are informed that the wages and hours here will com f1xr< f,1 elsewhere. We have received positive assurances that despite reports to the contrary the local manufacturers have not maintained, do not maintain, and will not maintain a so-called black list.