The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-06-04
NEARLY EVERYBODY TAKES THE TIL
WILL THE COMMERCIAL CLUB
PLAY FAIR WITH WORKING
MEN OF TACOMA?

The Commercial club of Tacoma is about to in
vest in half-million-dollar building. The con-
tract, it is said will be signed up early next week.
The money is to be furnished by the prog Iessiy 70
business men of this city who are members of the
But the actual building is to be done by the men
who toll.
Every brick that will be laid every stone that
will be set every iron beam that will be rveted and
every yard of concrete that will be poured will be
done by the hard hands of labor.
When the great structure is finished and looms
up its full ten stories against the eastern sky it will
stand monument to the skill and conscientious
toll of the industrious aborer who brick by brick and
stone by stone has laid it up and welded it together
in great structure of beauty and utility.
And what else?
will it be a monument to the progress of the
times, will it represent honest deal for the men
who built it, will it stand there every stone and
brick and beam forever crying out against the greed
of contractor who eternally demands from the men
who are fashioning the great edifce little more
work for little less pay?
1t is up to the men of the Commercial club to
say.
Union labor has asked that this fine building be
erected by union men the basis of an eight-hour
day at honest pay. The laboring man says that
eight hours is long enough in any one day for any
to lift steel beams, to carry brick hod,
to wrestle with the various problems of modern
structiOn And they say the man who does it should
have fair days pay for those eight hours.
But it is said there is likelihood of the contract
going so that no union principle will obtain. THAT
MEN WILL BE WORKED FOR TEN HOURS OR
MORE FOR WHATEVER THEIR NECESSITIES
COMPEL THEM TO ACCEPT IN THE FORM OF
PAY.
Will the progressive business man of Tacor.a
stand for this?
Is this semi public structure which is to repre-
sent progressivenes in concrete form in Tacoma to
be built basis that recognizes progress in the
economic conditions of the laborer? Is 1t to mean
that the members Of the Commercial club who do not
ahory with in he
industrial life but engaged in business want prog
and better conditions for themselves alone and
that the great movement of the larger and really
more important branch of society for better labor
conditions is to receive no recognition?
It may cost more to build the Commercial club
building on the basis of fair wages and fair hours.
Well, then pay it.
1t is worth more And an organization of nearly
a thousand of the richest in of the best cities
on earth ought to be willing to pay it if it can thereby
assist in the great movement that makes for better
condition for the men who toll In the future.
The Commercial club building ought to be a real
monument to progress.
It ought to represent the confidence of the bust
ness men in the future of the city and the union
principle of fair wage and fair day for the men
who make the city great.
The economic advancement of the laborer is the
measure of the business mans success and he should
be first in demanding that no grinding of the toler
shall obtain The more hours the aborer has Tor rest
and recreation the more he will deal with the bust
ness man who draws his advancement from this
source
For the Commercial club to seek to turn back
this trend of social advancement by permitting its
great building to be erected basis lower than the
standard already set by the organized labor move
ment of the world is not only shorsghted but is the
acme of unprogressiveness and is doing violence to
the highest impulses of justice and social betterment
The Commercial club building should be erected
by the most skilled men in Tacoma. And they should
get the best pay and work under the best conditions
of any men who have ever tackled task in this city
The club owes it to itself and it owes it to society
and the city to see that it is done.