The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-03-21

Recently the San Francisco Labor
Council requested the Young Mems
Christian Association TO uniou.ze its
/ employees IN reply the directors of
the Association stated that 10 was not
! in business as a moueymakinp iusti-
tuition, that it often employed persons
who We're destitute or iu need. ANA
that 30 regarded it as unjust to force
such men TO join union. The direct.
ors also took occasion TO state I'm their
reply that the San Francisco Labor
Council was the only organization of
its kind I'm the world that had ever
made such q request.
This is one only Of many things 60
ing to show that in San Francisco tho
demands of the labor organizations
are far in advance Of and much more
insistent than anywhere else. And Il
is from this that San Francisco has
suffered and will continue TO suffer
so long as there is this great differ
encc. The workingmen themselves have
been brought to a sad realization Of
this fact. and have appealed to their
organizations in other cities on the
coast to make most strenuous effort to
move up to the San Francisco posi-
ton To this end the sum Of 100000
is being raised in the unions through
the country to fight the "open shop"
in Los Angeles. Los Angeles and
other coast cities the thought is, must
come M or San Francisco must re-
cede from her position, or working
men and everyone else suffer great
loss. We saw recently what we take
to be an authoritative statement that
while San Franciscos manufacturing
business had been cut two-thirds in
the last half dozen years that Of Los
Angeles had trebled
Statistics gathered by the Home
Industry League show that San Francis
co and it's enyirons had in 1904 fac
tories to the number Of 4,5OO having
an aggregate capital Of $238 1O3, 663
and giving employment to 44,875 per-
sons. In 1910 the number had dwin-
died down to 1898, giving employ
ment to only $4,000 persons, and using
an invested capital Of only $78,981 ,879.
The building trades set the pace,
and the price, after the fire, and thriv-
ed Of course; but other industries,
which had to meet outside competi-
ton didn't thrive and many were
compelled to move elsewhere to save
themselves from bankruptcy.
Nowhere else in the world are
wages in the building trades as high
as they are in San Francisco ard no.
where else has there been such ruth
less limitation of output The aver
age wage in San Francisco is II
cents an hour; in New York it is 81;
in Los Angeles it is Sc.
Living may be less expensive in Los
Angeles than in San Francisco; but 1t
is more expensive in New York.
It has been figured that man en-
ploying a hundred men in San Fran
cisco has a weekly wage list of $4,000;
in New York Of $2,75O; in Los Angel
es, $2,7OO.
This computation does not include
the hod-carriers, who get fifty cents
an hour in San Francisco against 81
IL in New York and from 20 to 80
in Los Angeles. These included would
show a greater difference.
Those were glorious days in a mon
ey-making way for many people just
after the great fire in 1906. There
we're nearly a thousand Of those rich
days. Contractors didn't wrangle with
the material men about the prices nor
with the workingmen about wages;