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

wage question are not founded upon
law which the department is in duty
bound to follow but are patterned
somewhat after the law of 1852,
passed to regulate wage conditions in
navy yards. However, the regulations
of the war department are not as lib
eral as the law would allow.
The clause as nearly as is con-
sistent with public interest" in the
law OF 1862, governing wages in navy
yards, is sufficiently liberal to allow
any department under its provision to
pay as good wages as are being paid
by the best employers of labor since it
is not inconsistent with the public in
terest to do so.
u. The methods pursued in the ord
nance department are such that it
would be impossible to arrive at a
conclusion that would require wages
to be paid corresponding to those
paid by the best employers since the
entire field of employment in the vi
clnity determined upon is taken as a
basis no consideration being given to
whether an employer is liberal or 9TH
erwise in setting wages for his en-
ployees. On the contrary, clause in
section of regulation Is, Ordinance
Civil Service Regulation" provides that
in shops where only one rate of pay is
in vogue for each trade that that shall
apply to only the highest grade of
work done in that shop when used for
comparison to set arsenal wages. This
is manifestly unfair since it does not
give the lower grade of workmen at
the arsenal the privileges of compar-
ing their wages with wages being paid
for similar grades of work in such
shops. This regulation is primarily
aimed at railroad shops where good
wage conditions prevail and which
have been an advantage to the en-
ployees in securing better wage
scale.
The management at Rock Island
arsenal objects to having a railroad
shop where a fiat rate of wages is
being paid used as a basis for adjust
ing wages at the arsenal on the ground
that it is forced rate, that is, the
employees have been able to compel
the railroad company to pay higher
wage than the law of supply and de-
mand would justify. Nothing, how
ever is said by the management about
the low wages that are being paid in
some of the machine shops in the tri-
cities where wages have become arti-
ficially low due to the strength of the
Manufacturers association.
Special Skill Necessary.
"T For a number of years the ma
chinists at the Rock Island arsenal
have resisted the effort made by the
management to confine the vicinity for
wage comparison to the tri-cities and
up until the present time the war de-
partment has not forced that condi-
ton upon them. The tri-cities do not
contain machine shops that do as good
a grade of work to any appreciate
extent as that done at the arsenal and,
therefore, does not furnish a field for
proper comparison of work. The work
done at the arsenal requires great
precision, and is complicated as well.
Employees are obliged to be able to
read the most intricate and difficult
mechanical drawings that are made. A
great deal of the work is upon odd
shaped pieces involving the considera-
ton of angles which run out into the
minutes and seconds of a degree and
requires great accuracy of measure
ment This requires an exceptionally
high degree of skill and general re-
liability on the part Of the workmen.
1t is true that on work such as auto
mobile engines that close measure
ments are required but usually straight
work and is not nearly so difficult as
ordnance work In some of the pri-
, yate shops in the tri-cities where the
tolerances are small the inspection
does not force the employees to live
up to it. At the arsenal the inspection
is very rigid. The argument may be
advanced that the precision required
at the arsenal is greater than it needs
to be. While we de not think that this
contention is true, nevertheless, II 1t
were true il would not alter the lact
that great precision is required and
If great precision is required the skill
necessary to conform to such precis-
ion must be paid for in accordance