The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1911-02-16

How Is the open shop going to AFFECT
Gary is a question that is heard many
times day.
We can tell all that II will accom-
plish, but we can give some idea what
Gary may have a right to expect in
this article and others to follow it.
But first of all 1t is well to note how
the closed shop has worked. We know
1t hasn't worked at all in Gary. We
know 1T has greatly increased the cost
of building without giving the laborer
much greater returns. The kind OF
close shop we have had here has hurt.
But how has 1t affected other cities?
Let's take San Francisco for instance.
We take 1t because in it the closed shop
has reached its highest perfection in
America and also because description
OF conditions there appeared In the
February Hampton's.
1t will be remembered that P. Fl. Nc
Carthy, leader of the unions. was elect
ed mayor at the last election. Let us
quote Hampton's here:
six months of Mccarthy brought
San Francisco awake to its feet, rub
bing its eyes still. but realizing that
1t had passed through a kin dof eco
nomic nightmare 1t saw itself in the
leash of a union boycott which turns
on everyone. from merchant and build
employ g Chinese cook to prepare a
MONDAY lunch. 1t found that in the
building trades 1t was paying masons.
plasterers. fathers and bricklayers 81 II
cents an hour; painters. 5614 +; tile set
ters. rs; carpenters SPY; electricians.
cement fnishers and roofers. rs.
That is average OF II cents an
hour. Not only is this the highest wage
in the United States. but nowhere has
the limitation of output been so ruth
lessly practiced. In open shop Los An
geles the average for the same ten
branches is Sc cents an hour. In New
York where rents and living are most
expensive of all, it Is 81 cents an hour
In San Francisco the restrictions in
creased with the wages. The more
money the unions forced out of the
employer the more privileges they de-
manded and obtained.
Now read the result of this policy OF
the San Francisco unions upon the in
dustries of the city. According to
Home Industry League:
I'm 1904 San Francisco and environs
had $500 factories, with $23s,1o3,6 63
capital invested and 44.s75 hands. In
1910 she has 1898 factories with $7S,-
ss1.s79 capital invested and $4,000
hands. loss of more than two-thirds
of the industrial strength
The building trades thrived in San
Francisco because houses and lots
could not be imported But the other
industries. whose nature permitted
them to be carried in other cities.
went into rapid decline. In those six
years there was loss of 30.S75 factory
hands, or two-thirds of the entire num-
Der and a decrease in the capital In
vested in factories of s15s,121.7s4, or
frif7 9th q
entire amount
Hampton's proceeds with this preg-
nant statement:
while San Franciscos manufactur-
ing business is cut by two-thirds, that
of Los Angeles has trebled. Thus the
building trades standard has democrat
ICED that of all other trades; it has put
other union workmen out of a job; ii
has sent them to open shop rivals.
Where the Union Iron works of Sar
Francisco had four and FIVE thousand
men ten years ago today 1t has twelve
hundred"
This Hampton's article proves con-
clusively that the open shop in Sar
Francisco has simply knocked ths
manufacturing business into smither.
Gems. On the other hand. in Los An
geles where the open shop prevails
the manufacturing business has trebled
The same story is told in the manu-
featuring world wherever you turn
Detroit is said to have obtained fac
tories during the past year at the rat'
of one day. That may be somewha
exaggerated but there can be no doub
but that Detroit made wonderful
strides 1t is on the open shop basis
Construction News prints list o
seventy-three cities giving the increas
or decrease percentage of construction
for the year. or these thirty-four SHOW
gain and thirty-nine loss. OF thes
ffteen are operated on the open shol
basis. The nine principal cities of thi
number show an enormous gain in con
struction work. Those showing an in
: crease and the percent are:
Duluth, 262 per cent; Los Angeles, Ga
South Bend, So Memphis, As, Toledo
"a; Detroit, %; Cleveland, Is, Denver
10.
OF all these cities Duluth is the mos
like Gary. 1t Is located on one of tn
great lakes, it is steel town, is grow
ing very rapidly and its development
has been recent 1t became an ope
shop town at the end of 1907, accordin
to a resolution passed by the citizens o
Dec. 4, 1907.
This quotation from the report @
the labor committee to the Builder!
Exchange a year and a half after III
open shop put into operatio
shows that wages had not been re
duced nor the hours of labor length
ened:
The wages of the first class me
chanics under the open shop polio
have not been decreased the hour
heightened. Better results have bee
obtained in the way of economy an
speed of construction from the increas
ed efficiency of the men, the freedol