On the 22d of May the Board was asked to consider the proposition that “in view of the expenses of living, the sum of two dollars and fifty cents per day of eight hours is but a fair remuneration for ordinary labor—skilled and other labor to receive a proportionately increased compensation,” and on the 5th of June following the treasurer was requested to report “a comparative list of wages paid elsewhere in the city, and what increase, if any, would be proper” on the works of the Department.

A difference of judgment exists as to the method of determining what is “proper” in this respect in the business of the Department. The question arises under the following circumstances: The health of the city requiring that it should be provided with public grounds adapted to particular forms of recreation, counteractive to the effects of confined life, five of its citizens have been commissioned to apply certain funds to the purpose of procuring them. Some part of the required fittings of these grounds are to be found ready-made [571] in the market, and may be obtained by direct purchase; other parts have to be made to order, and may be acquired by dealing with contractors who employ the workmen by whose labor these parts are to be formed. Yet other parts are to be acquired by contract directly with the workmen, the materials and tools to be used by them having to be bought separately.

There are thus four several classes of dealings in which the Department has to engage. In respect to three of these classes the rule is followed of paying the market price for what is wanted, and in regard to most articles this is determined by finding the lowest bid in a competition of those who are able to supply it. Should any other method be systematically used, whereby more was obviously paid than the market price, the Department would be regarded as faithless to its trust.

It is argued that where laboring men are engaged directly by the Department, instead of by dealings with contractors, this rule of paying according to the market rate for similar service should not be followed, for the reason that, at the present prices of lodging, clothing and provisions, men cannot be expected to maintain families comfortably unless they are paid more than the rates of the market. The proposition seems thus to be suggested, that the Department shall determine the rate to be paid by it for labor, by reference to the market value of provisions and to other conditions, by which the daily cost of comfortably supporting a family may be tested. The constant fluctuation in details, and the constantly varying difference of proportion between the wholesale and the retail rates of the provision and clothing markets, would make such a standard a vague and uncertain one; but, assuming it to be practicable to regulate wages by such a method, it is to be further considered that but a small part of the laboring men resident in the city, or even of the number now and commonly seeking employment can be provided with employment by the Department. Much the larger number of working men of the city are engaged with private employers. If the Department pays more than the generality of private employers, it can only be to a small number of favored men.

The wages paid by the Department are drawn from funds obtained by a process which, in the end, adds, in proportion to the amount obtained, to the rates of rent and the price of all provisions and household supplies sold in the city; consequently if the Department should advance its rate of wages materially above the market rate, for the sake of increasing the comforts available to the families of the comparatively few men whom it would employ, the effect would be to increase the cost to the great mass of working men of the city of supporting their families in comfort. At the same time, the chance of obtaining the higher wages to be given to the favored few, would tend to draw to and hold in the city many men without families, who, failing to obtain work with the Department, would be compelled to seek it of private employers, and thus crowd out of employment or reduce the wages of some who might otherwise be earning a fair support for their families.

[572]

In the judgment of the treasurer, the attempt to determine a rate of wages by such a process would neither be found practicable nor beneficial to the great body of the working men of the city, while it would oblige the Department to exceed its legitimate and proper duty.

The question remains whether the rates now paid by the Department in its dealings directly with workmen are less than those which they might obtain if they should deal with private employers?

In respect to this question, it is known that craftsmen employed in private works in most of the trades represented in the works of the Department are, or have recently been, engaged in testing the demands of the market by the process of strikes. In some few instances they have been successful; in some they have abandoned their purpose, and in some they still hold out, and works are stopped. Under these circumstances, it has been hardly practicable to form a comparative list of the rates of wages, but it is believed that, as a general rule, the demands even of the strikers have scarcely gone beyond the rates of compensation already established by the Department. Skilled workmen and mechanics are unquestionably eager to obtain employment at these rates.

With respect to unskilled labor, this is the season of the year in which it is usually in greatest demand throughout the country. The number of men seeking employment in the city is nevertheless large, and contractors who are paying twenty per cent. less than the Department represent that they find no lack of men. It has been asserted that a higher rate than that established by the Department is, in some instances, paid, but promises to inform the treasurer where and by whom, made some weeks since, have not as yet been kept. There is no reason to doubt that the force now employed by the Department could at once be very largely increased, were it desirable, without an advance of wages.

Wages have been advanced, from time to time, on the works of the Department until the rates have become, on an average, three times as high as they were ten years ago. The treasurer is of the opinion that the Department would not be justified in making a further advance at present.