THEY WANTED WORK (?) by W. N. G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 28, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 26.

THEY WANTED WORK (?)

By W. N. G.

WHILE it is a sad, lamentable fact that many poor men and their families are suffering for want of employment; while it is a fact that many are thrown out of employment, or forced to work at starvation wages, by the cruelty of capital combination and concentration; it is another sad fact that too many men, with and without families, do not want to work, and the saloons get their money when they do work.

An instance, illustrating this feature of the much-discussed labor question, is told by the Tribune of this city. It is the experience of the terminal freight agent of the Southern Pacific Company, who has charge of the Long Wharf and the Peralta Yards. He wanted hands to unload coal, and went in quest of them, offering twenty-five cents an hour.

In a water-front saloon he found a lot of men; they wanted work, of course; that was what they were doing in the saloon—hunting work! But unloading coal—that was a kind of work they did not want. Continuing his search, the freight agent went to an up-town saloon, where he found another lot of men, who wanted work at any price. But none of them cared to unload coal at twenty-five cents an hour.

From here the searcher for laborers went to the Builders' Exchange, where he found more men in search of work. Another crowd was found lounging in the City Hall Park, looking for employment. Out of these two companies two "gangs" of men were engaged to go to work at one o'clock P.M.

One o'clock came, but not one of the men appeared. The freight agent then recalled a remark of one old man who wanted work, but was not physically able to unload coal: "These fellows want work, but they all want to be bank clerks." It is such instances as this that cause a loss to laboring men of much of the sympathy they might otherwise have. W. N. G.