Evening journal., 1920-10-27
THE HIGH COST or STRIKES
CI11for TIT
Strikes and the High Cost of Rent

The average New Yorker is today
paying $32 more rent every month
on account OF strikes or threats OF
strikes.
Bricks used to cost $40 10 si2 a
thousand. Today they cost ga a
thousand.
BricNayars used to lay from 1900
to 1900 bricks day for $500 day.
Now they lay from COO to 800 bricks
for $40 a day.
II 1t costs twice as much TO lay
half as many bricks, 1t obviously
costs four times as much TO lay each
brick. And when each brick ITSELF
also costs four times as much TO buy,
1t is no lhard TO figure out one very
material item in the high cost OF
building and The high cost OF rent.
Tue reason why each brick costs
four times as much to buy and then
four times as much to lay is at least
- per cent. because OF .he spirit OF
strikes, the. threat OF strikes, and
strikes themselves.
New York is surrounded by square
miles OF sand and gravel. There are
miles OF mountains OF sand along the
southern outskirts OF Chicago. Yet in
New York or Chicago this basic build
ing material costs 50 TO 50 a cubic
yard-twice as much as coal cost a
few years ago. The only possible
reason is strikes.
The writer was in a position where
he could watch the erection, few
years ago. OF the building at 100 West
fortieth street. The irOnwork went
up twenty-five stories at the rate Of
two stories a day. The brickwOrk
went up at the rate Of more than a
story a day.
There is much smaller building
going up at Ahe corner OF Madison
avenue and Fortieth street at present.
Each piece or material In y costs up
TO four times as much as that In the
former building. Every laborer is
getting twice as much pay. But in
spite OF this. the building is going up
lhalf as fast. With this conspicuous
, and typical example, a child could
figure out the reason for the high
cost Of building and the cost Of rent
today.
A New York city schoolhouse just
put up Is an exact duplicate OF one
put up before the war. This makes
possible an exact comparison OF labor
efficiency then and now. Even on
such a building for The education OF
their children. work today was 33 ti-3
per cent. less efficient What rs 10 then
on the ordinary jOb2 often at least
- per cent. less efficient say almos,
all builders I'm all fields.
Yet any contractor or other capital
/ ist who should dare TO suggest TO
labor that, with material twice as
high or more and with labor getting
twice as much or more, labor itself
ought TO help bring down The cost Of
building by doing at least as much as
| they did when they got half as much
I f.a rnratrIA fnnlolfhlnHlN hQNn "A lfriE.l
on his hands within an hour
All this applies merely TO The high
cost OF buildings .on which construc-
tion progress Is steady, even II slow.
On buildings which are .affecled by
strikes. high costs are not only run
lup much greater, but for a special
and pernicious reason run up dlspr0-
lportionately greater.
As is well known, years ago the
building field was one in which
lstrikes Of the ordinary kind-between
the workers union and the employers
l--flourished. For a number OF OBJ
vious reasons, however, the union
has very distinct strategic adyan-
tage in such controversies. In the
nrst place, the employing side was
weakened because the employer rep
resented only one or a few building
operations and was further divided
into contractor, architect and owner
often with different interests, whill
the union represented all The workers
OF given class in a locality.
Again, a building operation requires
the work OF many classes OF labor
one after the other eXcavatOrs
plumbers. steelworkers, masons, car.
penters. etc, so that a strike OF any
one OF these Glasses OF workers
though they represented but smal
minority OF The total workers, cOulC
hold up all building operations.
As a result OF these and other cir
cumstances, builders long ago fOunC
that II was cheaper in the long run tC
yield TO almost any demand. no mat
ter how unfair, from the union,
rather than permit strike Thus
although there has been for years fai
less striking In the building trades
over controversies between employ
ers and employees, the strike threat
has served TO constantly increase the
cost OF building far more than actua
strikes have increased costs in many
other fields. In fact, the Senate
Calder commission shows that ioda,
at least 0ne-third is always added Il
the estimated actual cost Of any
building. operation TO provide agains
CONTINGENCIES" which consist chief
ly OF possible labor troubles. A largl
New York contractor has stated
within the last few weeks that n,
would not think OF accepting con
tract at a fixed price without addin,
80 per cent. for such contingencies
Many OF such contingencies" ar,
quite involved, but here Is one yer!
simple example, Some time ago tn
steam filters decided II was below
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