These men, however, were faced with a new but very simple and
straightforward proposition, namely, am I a first-class laborer or not?
Each man felt that if he belonged in the first class all he had to do
was to work at his best and he would be paid sixty per cent more than
he had been paid in the past. Each piece work price was accepted by the
men without question. They never bargained over nor complained about
rates, and there was no occasion to do so, since they were all equally
fair, and called for almost exactly the same amount of work and fatigue
per dollar of wages.
A careful inquiry into the condition of these men when away from work
developed the fact that out of the whole gang only two were said to be
drinking men. This does not, of course, imply that many of them did not
take an occasional drink. The fact is that a steady drinker would find
it almost impossible to keep up with the pace which was set, so that
they were practically all sober. Many if not most of them were saving
money, and they all lived better than they had before. The results
attained under this system were most satisfactory both to employer and
workmen, and show in a convincing way the possibility of uniting high
wages with a low labor cost.
This is virtually a labor union of first-class men, who are united
together to secure the extra high wages, which belong to them by right
and which in this case are begrudged them by none, and which will be
theirs through dull times as well as periods of activity.
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