Poetical
quotations, as we have before stated, were the best hold of the old-time
political editors of Canada, and they had their effect with people. Indeed,
many of the verses would apply to some of the politicians of the present day,
but as these Musings are not in a political vein, we will merely quote the
poetry. When a politician changed from one side to the other in those days he
was designated by some contemptuous title. John Wilson, related to the Grimsby
Wilsons, lived in London, and was an M.P.P.. He was a Tory originally, but for
special reasons turned his political coat and joined the party called the
Reformers. Some Silas Wegg dropped into poetry, and here is the result:
SONS OF THE
LOOSEFISH
Sung by J. Wilson, Esq., M.P.P.
There’s nothing like turning
one’s coat,
When once it begins to look seedy;
There’s nothing like selling
one’s vote
To ministers when they are needy.
But when I reflect on the
changes
By which I have risen to station,
My present position, though
strange, is
Good for me; then what care I for the
nation?
The moment I saw my way
clearly
To advance myself in my profession,
I ratted, and hope to be
nearly
The most brilliant star of the next
session.
I candidly own, I discern it
Is right to be sometimes deceitful;
And as to my coat, I will
turn it,
And even my skin – when it’s needful.
There are loosefish now in the
political world, as there were fifty-four years ago, and some of them could
very well appropriately sing Wilson’s song.
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On Saturday morning, at 3 o’clock,
March 5, 1850, a fire broke out in the Red Jacket saloon, on King street, kept
by Mr. Perry. How many persons living in Hamilton today can recall that fire,
or remember the men in business who were sufferers by it? It was an old frame,
as, indeed, was the entire row of buildings which stood on the most valuable portion
of King street, and though they were of little value, the occupants paid a high
rental on account of the location. On the same ground today is the handsome
building of the Stanley Mills Company and the stone block to the east of it,
between the Mills and the T. C. Watkins building. Many of the merchants in
those days occupied the rooms over their stores as family residences, as a
matter of economy and also to be near their business. Next to the Red Jacket
saloon, Mr. Nash kept a tailor shop and he not only most of his stock
destroyed, but also lost his furniture, family clothing and quite an amount of
money that was in the till. Mr. Fletcher, a shoemaker, was equally unfortunate,
but Jacob Bastedo, the hatter, and Sunley, a shoemaker, managed to save the
greater portion of their stock. Martyn and Carter had jewelry shops, Mills a
hat store, Hardiker, a grocery, and Ecclestone, a confectionery, all of whom
escaped the fire through the efforts of the fire department, but had
considerable loss from breakage and damage by water. The buildings burned
belonged to D. McCarile, Samuel Kerr and John White, and were insured for their
full value. The newspapers paid the fire department a high compliment for zeal
and intrepidity, and regretted to add that several of the firemen were injured
by the falling timbers and the flames. Samuel Kerr, the father of Mrs. John
Eastwood, was chief engineer of the fire department at that time.
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It was an important event in the
commercial history of Hamilton, when, in the spring of 1850, three steamers
were put on the through route from this city to Montreal. Prior to that time
all cargoes from Hamilton were transferred at Kingston, making great delay and
adding extra cost for handling. The New Era, Comet and Passport were the three
steamers, and the change to the traveling public and shippers of produce was
the saving of twelve hours’ time. The steamer Rochester, commanded by Capt.
Masson, made daily trips from Hamilton to Lewiston, and the propeller Clifton
plied between Hamilton and Oswego. Those were busy days at the wharves in
Hamilton, as the Lake Ontario fleet of steamers made Hamilton an important
point, it being the head of navigation, all freight to and from the west had to
come here. The building of the Hamilton and Toronto railway, some years after
the opening of the Great Western line, and the through railway from Montreal to
Toronto, changed the freight business from water to land. Of late years, however,
the shippers have done most of their freighting by water during the navigable
season, and things look lively along the bayfront. When the North End park
improvements are made, and the waterfront from Macnab street out to the iron
and steel works is dotted with wharves for the International Harvester company,
and all the great industries requiring shipping facilities, then will the canal
and the bay be alive again with water craft, and Hamilton will get back to the
position nature intended it to fill in the world of industry.
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When the Great western railway had its
headquarters in Hamilton, and the frame office building on Stuart street, which
covered a block, was crowded with officials and clerks, it was a great training
school for our boys in railway matters, and scores of graduates were sent out,
many of whom are now holding high positions with railroad corporations in
Canada and the United States. Other scores of bright, young mechanics graduated
from the car shops, the machinery and from all departments required to make
rolling stock for a great through line. It was a sorry day from Hamilton when
the headquarters were moved to other points, only the line and a round house
for making temporary repairs were left here. This train of thought is suggested
by an article in a Philadelphia newspaper on high salaried railroad men, and
more especially what is paid the officials connected with the United States
Steel Corporation. A familiar name to old Hamiltonians appears on the list,
Samuel R. Callaway, president of the American Locomotive company. Mr. Calloway
got his first training in office work in the old Great Western building on
Stuart street, when he and Dick McKay had desks in the same room, and there was
a difference of less than $100 than $100 a year in their salaries. Calloway
went out into the world to seek his fortune in railway work, and Dick remained
in Hamilton and opened an office for real estate, insurance and kindred lines.
Calloway worked his way up till he became president of the New York Central
road, at a salary of $40,000 a year, and a couple of years ago, the tempting
salary of $100,000 and the presidency of the American Locomotive company was
hung up for him to reach out and take. He resigned the railroad job and became
an important part of the Great United States corporation. Dick McKay is not
making quite so much money, but the chances are that he enjoys life just as
well as his old fellow-clerk.
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It is rather interesting to read some
of the salaries paid to men connected with great corporations. The president of
the Pennsylvania draws the largest salary of any railroad official in the
United States - $75,000 a year. A number of railroad presidents get $50,000 a
year. Sir Wm. Van Horne, of the Canadian Pacific, and C. M. Hays, of the Grand
Trunk and its connections, are away up among the high-salaried official. The
Standard Oil company pays its general solicitor a salary of $250,000 a year. Hamilton
has a dozen able lawyers who would be willing to do the work and divide the
$250,000 in equal parts among themselves. Charles M. Schwab, when he was president
of the United States Steel corporation, drew a salary of $100,000 a year, and
there are12 others in the same corporation who receive $150,000 each. The
president of Amalgamated Copper company signs a receipt for $100,000 a year;
and Henry O. Havemeyer, the president of the American Sugar Refining company has
$100,000 a year besides his share in the immense profits of the sugar trust.
Banks presidents do not come quite so high, the highest salary being $50,000 a
year, but quite a number receive that amount. The president of the First
National bank in New York city has managed to scrape together even out of his
small pile of $30,000,000 while another bank president in the same city figures
up to $12,000,000 to divide among his heirs. Half a century ago, a railroad
company did not pay much more than $50,000 among fifty of its best paid
officials, and $250,000 was more than all the lawyers, judges and court
officials in Hamilton made in a year. This is the golden age of big salaries
and good wages. How long is it going to last.
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Yes, that is the question, “How long
is it going to last?” In the whole history of Canada and of the United States,
men who have brain and muscle and skilled labor to sell have never seen such
prosperous times as we have had during the past six years; and there has been a
steady demand for the output. Here in Hamilton – and the same condition has
prevailed in other Canadian towns – factories and machine shops, and indeed all
departments of the mechanical arts, have had to work overtime to supply the
market; and men, skilled and unskilled, in the buildings have had all they
could do everyday during the months that it was possible for them to work. Have
we been living in a fool’s paradise, spending everything, expecting that the
golden harvest would last forever, or have the wage earners been cautious and
prudent, laying by a little each week for the possible rainy day that generally
follows the seasons of great prosperity? There is great strain in the financial
circles in the country of our American cousins, and now and then something
gives away on account of the tension. They have been overdoing things over
there; the captains of industry have been working on the get-rich-quick plan,
and the Morgans, the Scwabs, the Rockefellers and all of that class who have
become multi-millionaires in a few years, have been consolidating industries
and getting control of everything, pumping the capital stocks so full of water
that when the bulls and bears on Wall street get butting at each other,
something has to give way, and it is always labor that gets the worst of it in
the end. These are the conditions that seem to be near at hand. Unfortunately,
legitimate manufacturing industries always feel the squeeze. Samuel Gompers ,
the president of the American Federation of Labor, throws down a challenge to employers
against cutting or making any attempt to cut wages. The big corporations that
are beginning to feel the pressure have wisely decided to leave the wage scale,
but in order to cut down expenses, are reducing the number of hands in their
employ. It is estimated that before the end of the present year a million men
will be thrown out of employment. This is a serious matter to think of. Men are
now counted at the end of their usefulness when they arrive at the age of
forty, and the grey hairs that used to be counted as honorable are rather against
one. The scalp food recently delivered by one of Hamilton’s eminent doctors
will come as a Godsend, for it not only makes the hair grow, but it restores it
to its natural color. There is hope for the grey heads yet. Now is the time for
employer and employee to look at things as they are, squarely in the face, and
to be considerate of each other’s welfare. It will not be wise for the employed
to kill the goose that lays the golden egg by throwing down the defiant gauntlet
as Gompers did in his speech in Chicago last Saturday; nor will it be wise for
the employer to impose conditions that will humiliate or impoverish the
employed. This is a world of give and take, and the pleasanter it can be done,
the happier it is for both sides in a controversy.
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But we started this train of thought
along economic lines with the suggestion that a few dollars saved up in the
days of prosperity always come in handy when reverses come. Don’t live in a
fool’s paradise, thinking it is always going to be sunshine, and spend up to
the limit of your day’s earnings.
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