The San Francisco Iron Strike [pp. 39-47]

The San Francisco Iron Strike.
on castings, nails, hinges, kettles, rivets and
such like, the rates are $43 per ton from
Chicago and Milwaukee, and $50 per ton
from New York. On grates, fenders, and
fire-sets, the rate is $6o per ton from New
York, and $52 per ton from Chicago and
Milwaukee. On boilers not over 28 feet
long the rate is $80 per ton from New York,
and $69 per ton from Chicago. On the
best finished machinery for all other pur poses the rate runs from $40 per ton up to
$ioo per ton from New York, and from $34
to $69 per ton from Chicago and Milwau kee. These figures are taken from the new
schedule of freight rates, which went into ef fect on January ist, i885, and on which
there is no rebate.
The third reason given is, that wages are
25 per cent. higher here than in the East.
It is true that there has been a great amount
of distress among the laboring classes in the
East, of late, brought about principally by
miners, manufacturers and other employers,
who have brought hordes of contract laborers from countries where labor is most poorly paid, and compelled American workmen
to accept the same rates as this servile class,
or starve. But the effect of this system is
felt even on this coast, and the difference
between the wages here and there is not so
great as the manufacturers would make it
appear. Wages are not more than 15 per
cent. higher here for mechanics than in the
East, and the wages of laboring men employed in foundries, machine shops, boiler
yards, and all other branches of the iron
trade, are much higher there than manufacturers here are willing to admit. The reason is, that they must possess more intelligence than the men who-labor at less skilled
work, such as grading in the open air and
shoveling earth into carts. So that I am
sure I 5 per cent. will cover all the difference
in wages of both mechanics and laboring
men. But all men who work by the day
here perform fully 15 per cent. more labor
than the same class do in the East. There
are reasons for this. In the first place, in
the hot summer months men can not perform the same amount of work in the East
as we can in the coast climate here, and
there are often periods in the dead of winter
in many places at the East, when men can
not work at all; while here, the same quan tity of work can be performed all the year
round: moreover the custom of mechanics
here is to work faster than at the East.
Many of them are Eastern men, who sur passed their fellow workers in Eastern work shops; and having confidence in themselves,
and a knowledge of their superior mechani cal abilities, were not afraid to venture into
strange cities and distant States. This is
true in every trade, as well as in the work shops where machinery is produced.
Now, as to the cost of material. It is
said that the coal used for smelting costs in
this city $I4 per ton, while in the East it
costs but $4 per ton. This is about correct
as far as this city is concerned, but it is not
strictly true for the East, because the same
class of coal which costs $I4 here is $7.50
per ton in New York, and about the same in
Chicago and Milwaukee. It cannot be had
at any place for $4 per ton, except, perhaps,
at the mouth of the pits where it is dug.
They have likewise set the average cost of
pig iron in the East too low, and here entirely too high. It has not cost on an average any where near $27.50 per ton in this
city within the past year, nor has it been obtained in the East for as low an average as $i8
per ton, which facts the following figures will
prove. (The "foundry" and "car-wheel"
iron is the best grade of iron used in thiscity.)
IRON MARKET REPORT.
Furnished by E. L. HARPER & CO., Dealers in Pig Iron, &c.,
Cincinnati, 0.
CINCINNATI, January 20, i885.
FOUNDRY.
Hanging Rock Charcoal..........No. I, $20 50ol2I so-cash.
" " "..........No. 2, x9 5o20o 5 "
Strong Neutral Coke.............No. z, i6 75(I7 50
" " *'1.............. No. 2, 15 5o0I6 25
American Scotch.................. x6 50oD7 oo "
GRAY FORGE.
Neutral Coke................... 4 OO@x4 5o
Cold short................... 4 OO@x4 50 "
CAR-WHEEL AND MALLEABLE:.
Hanging Rock, cold blast............... 25 oo-@25 50'.
""warm "......... 20925............... " ~
warm. ~~~~22 oo(@22 50
Southern, cold blast.................. 22 o0o(23 oo "
Virginia, warm blast..................... 25 oo2 50 "
Lake Superior, Charcoal, all-grades...... 21 5ol22 oo "
44
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