The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-08-05
SLASH PAY ON
ROADS TO GET
TWO PROFITS
Chicago Man Won Contract
on No. 81, Then SubIet
to State Firm.
BY DANIEL M. KIDNEY

II
Because a Chicago contractor
takes a profit without doing any
work, may be one of the reasons
why laborers on state paving prof.
ects in southern Indiana must toll
for 20 cents an hour, it was learned
by The Times today.
On State Road 81, from Elliston
to Linton, the contractor on the job,
r. D. Baker Company, Bloomfield,
Ind, and Royal Oak, Mich, is pay
ing laborers as low as 20 cents and
water boys, who frequently are men,
Is cents an hour.
This was learned by The Times
on a trip to the project, which Is
nearing completion.
The answer at the state highway
department this morning was that
Baker doesn't have any state con-
tracts.
Figured at 40 Cents
This particular job was let to the
Duncan Construction Company of
Chicago on Oct. 81, 1929, with labor
figured in the state estimate at a
Accent an hour minimum, according
to Ralph E. Simpson, chief clerk in
charge of contracts.
Duncan sub-let the contract to the
Baker company, taking a profit and
doing nothing, and then Baker cut
the accent minimum in two so that
his profits might be enhanced.
Out of the small Indiana towns
come the laborers, from Elliston,
Linton, .Switz City end others.
One of them told The Times
Monday he started unloading
cement but couldn't find out how
much ne was going to get paid. He
worked ten hours a day, and later
learned he made 81.
Throughout the hottest summer
in history, men, old and young, have
continued to work under the broil-
ing sun for this low wage. On some
of the tasks, Is or 80 cents is paid.
But 80 cents was the highest any
man was getting in the entire group
interviewed by The Times.
1t hasn't rained in that vicinity
for months and the men work in
dust we'll over their shoetops. Trucks
speed by leaving dust cloud as
thick and inpenetrable as a smoke
scream.
On some of the positions the dust
is favored with a dash of fine. fly
ing cement. -
Close Of the day finds the men
With an encrustation of dust, mixed
with cement and perspiration.
The day starts at a. m, and
there is thirty minutes at noon to
eat out of their lunch buckets. They
work until 5 p. m, they said, but
some days the ten and one-half
hours have run into twelve or more.
Thought He Had Raise
One old man thought he got a
raise from his 20 cent pay, because
he drew SO for two weeks work.
Pay day Is every fortnight. But he
had been of two days and had
worked overtime enough to make up
the difference in the ten days, for
the 81 extra.
But, although he has been work
ing all summer for 20 cents, he isn't
quite sure that he didn't get % cents
last time.
Duncan got the contract for paw
ing 15.707 miles for $3.50, 1871. 88,
which was $5S,653.87 below the en-
gineer's estimate. What they sub
let it for could not be learned at the
highway department.
1t was admitted, however, that in
such deals, the original contractor
appears only in the role of broker.
Chairman Albert j. Wedeking of
the commission has declared that
where a 20-cent wage scale on state
paving projects was disclosed some,
thing will be done about it,
The commissioners are expected
to assemble Wednesday and the
figures now are available.
Besides gathering its own data
and visiting various projects on
roads throughout the state, The
Times is cooperating in a state
wide survey of state paving wages
befTg conducted by the Indiana
State Federation of Labor, through
Secretary Adolph Fritz, Peoples
State Bank building.