Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-05-16

point where any considerable num-
Der could be gotten. On the other
hand the records will show that a
large number of the men leaving he
Rock Island arsenal have accepted po
sitions as foremen or experts in SIN
liar lines of work done by private con
Germs. Only a few months ago large
number Of machinists and tool max
ers left the Rock Island arsenal to
accept positions with the Remington
Arms company at Eddystone, Pa, at
$500 per month and over. Many of the
private shops in the tri-citieS have as
foremen men who have gained their
experience and knowledge at the Rock
Island arsenal. This shows that men
coming to the arsenal from the tri-
cities are put upon the lower grade of
work and men leaving the arsenal for
other places are OftentimeS placed as
foremen. | do not know of single
instance where man has come from
private shop in the tri-CitieS and
been made foreman at the arsenal
in recent years.
No Ground for Refusal.
GA In view of the fact that the
war department is not confined to the
immediate vicinity due to any law gov
erning the case and if the department
is willing to pay as good wages as 1t
paid by numerous other employers OF
labor in that section of the country
there can be no objection to granting
our request of including the shops
Chicago indicated. The only ground
that could be advanced, it seems to me.
for refusing our request is that the
department does not wish to pay as
good wages as the better class OF en-
ployers are paying.
"15. On March II, 1914, you sent
me copy of your decision of March
| 8, 1914, with reference to question
you had had under discussion and in
| which | had represented the work
mems side, which provided that to as
certain the daily rate paid by private
| concerns where the employees work
nine hours per day five days of the
week and five hours on Saturday the
weekly earnings should be divided by
five and five-ninths. This controversy
| arose due to the machine shops in Chi
cago which were included in the in
vestigation working only five and one
| half days per week If it had been
| against your wishes at that time to
consider wages paid in Chicago as i'm
proper in determining wages at the
| Rock Island arsenal no doubt that de-
cision would never have been made
| The very fact that the decision was
| considered is proof that two years ago
the department did not think the wage
investigation should be confined to the
| tri-cities.
"16. During that wage investiga-
| ton the employees had selected list
( of shops in the tri-cities and Chicago
as proper for basis. The management:
had compiled its data in three sep
: arate schedules known as Z, F and G,
respectively. Schedule Z was data col
lected outside of tri-cities and Chi
cago, schedule F was data from tri-
cities, and schedule G was data from
| firms submitted by machinists outside
of four Chicago firms. The employees
appealed from the decision OF the com
handing officer and the chief Of ord
nance assigned Major l.. T. Hillman
to the duty of endeayoring to reach an
agreement with me as the Washington
representative of the employees con-
cerned. Major Hillman and | came
to a complete agreement outside OF
the point subsequently covered by
| vour decision of March 9, 1914 The
average wages for machnists at that
time, according to our figures, was ap-