Saturday Musings
Spectator March 08, 1919
LOOK AT BOTH SIDES OF THE QUESTION
‘First, let us glance backward, say sixty-five or seventy years, and then open our eyes and look at what may be in the future. On the sixth day of March, 1834 – the year the Old Muser was born – when William IV was king, and Upper Canada was almost a wilderness, the legislature passed an act incorporating the London and Gore railway, on a petition from certain inhabitants of Hamilton and of this district. There were no railroads in Canada then, but two years later, there was a short line between LaPrairie and St. John’s, on the borderline between Canada and the United States. Hamilton had a few enterprising businessmen in 1834, and while they had all the advantages of being at the Head of the Lake, they were ambitious to reach out and see what London-in-the-Woods looked like. Well, not to waste time looking backward, Hamilton decided that the only way to get to London was to build a railway, and Sir Allan MacNab was sent to see what the west looked like, and if the outlook was encouraging, this old town would construct a railway at least that far, and depend upon Providence for the future. When Sir Allan came back and reported favorably, a number of Hamilton men formed themselves into a company, and here are the names : Allan Napier MacNab, Colin Campbell Ferrie, John Young, Ebenezer Stinson, Samuel Mills, George T. Tiffany, Peter Hunter Hamilton, Oliver Tiffany, Dr. William Case (the dear old man whose bones have long since crumbled to dust on the wayside at the head of John street, on the road to the mountain top), A. Smith, John Law and Miles O’Reilly, and Dundas was represented by Mayor Notman, Peter Bamberger, Manuel Overfield and a few others whose names are forgotten. Now there you have the names of the men who built the first railway in Upper Canada. A few English capitalists opened their eyes at the temerity of a handful of Canadians thinking of such a thing as building a railway, but John Bull, the cute old fellow, thought there might be money in it for him, so in 1846, John was ready to invest a trifle and get control. About all the money the English capitalists expected to invest was in the purchase of the bonds, which would be gilt-edged and pay 6 per cent dividend, in gold. On the 23rd of July, 1850, the legislature passed an act empowering municipal corporations along the proposed line to subscribe for the stock. Hamilton was the daddy of the proposed road, and the town subscribed $50,000 in stock, and the business men invested liberally also, and, within a few weeks, every municipality between Niagara Falls and Windsor was enrolled on the list of shareholders. Indeed, everybody that could raise the price of a share of stock chipped in, so that the proposed line was substantially financed. That is the way that Hamilton built the first line of railway in Canada.
WHAT IT COST TO BUILD THE
GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY
“In these days when
Hamilton is invited to involve itself to
the Hydro commission in the modest sum of nearly six millions of dollars as a
part of its share toward building a line from Port Credit to St. Catharines to
connect with a through line from Toronto to London. Let us look at the amount
the Hydro commission demands from
Hamilton for a road practically about sixty miles long, and compare the figures
with the cost of building the main track of the Great Western railway from
Niagara Falls to Windsor, a distance of 227 miles in length, and branches to
Galt and to Port Sarnia. According to the report of Charles Stuart, the chief
engineer of the construction department, to the board of directors, the total
cost was $5,617,730; and the total cost for constructing equipping 350 miles of
road was $21,071,776.
“Take a look at the
amount asked by the Hydro commission to construct 60 miles of radial road from
Port Credit to St. Catharines and compare the figures with the cost for
construction and equipping 350 miles of the Great Western steam railway. The
Hydro commission makes a demand for $11,360,363 for its sixty miles of radial
road, of which Hamilton must pay $5,869,286, or nearly one-half, while the
township of Toronto, the starting of the Toronto and London road, is only
called to pay $243,087; and St. Catharines, the terminal, to pay $623,750. For
the privilege of being a way station between Toronto and St. Catharines,
Hamilton must become liable for nearly six millions of dollars besides
furnishing free right-of-way through the finest parks in Canada and through the
streets of the city. Put it in this way and see where Hamilton is at. It has to
pay not less than two millions of dollars a mile for the privilege of the
radial road running not more than three miles through the city, and then
Hamilton will not have a word to say about the management for its six millions
of dollars. Toronto being the starting point, and St. Catharines, the terminal,
the headquarters for offices and workshops will naturally be at those points. A
good thing for labor at Toronto and St. Catharines, but a mighty poor show for
labor in Hamilton. Probably Hamilton ought to feel thankful that it can walk
out to Dundurn park and see the wheels of the electric cars go round, but six
millions is a mighty big price to pay for that privilege.
LOOK AGAIN AY WHAT IT
COST TO
CONSTRUCT AND EQUIP THE
GREAT WESTERN ROAD
“And then compare
the figures with the amount Sir Adam Beck wants to build the sixty miles of
road from Port Credit to St. Catharines.
It may be reiteration, but on an important questions like Hamilton is
confronted with, it will do no harm to repeat the cost. Sir Adam wants
$11,360,363 to build his sixty miles of road from Port Credit to St.
Catharines. The Great Western railway built and equipped 350 miles of steam
railway for $21, 071, 770, or less than double what Sir Adam wants for his
sixty miles of radial road. Quite a difference. Here is Chief Engineer Charles
Stuart’s estimate of what it cost to build the Great Western:
Per
Mile Total
Niagara Falls to
Hamilton $22,652
$999,658
Hamilton to London $37,067 $3,183,036
London to Windsor $15,875 $1,746,329
Port Sarnia branch $13,312 $66,039
“Hamilton got the
car shops, the machine shops, and the headquarters of the company’s office
force. Out of Sir Adam’s road, Hamilton will not get a blessed thing except the
privilege of handing over six millions of dollars in bonds and the payment of
interest on them for fifty years.
_________________________
SIXTY-FOUR YEARS AGO
“On the night of
the sixth day of March, 1854, the first labor organization in Hamilton was
organized. Those were the days when workingmen had to combine to get enough
from their daily labor to keep body and soul together; and indeed the employers
were not much better off, for things were down to a pretty low ebb for both the
employer and the employed. At that time, Hamilton had five newspaper printing
offices – the Daily Spectator, the semi-weekly Gazette, the semi-weekly Journal
and Express, the Daily Banner and the weekly Canadian Christian Advocate. There
were two other papers, both religious, The Church, published by Harcourt B.
Bull, and printed in the Gazette office, and the Canadian Evangelist, a
monthly, published by Rev. Robert Poden. Combine all the offices together and
there were not more than forty journeymen employed, the main force being boys.
For the journeymen there was no fixed scale, the rate being anywhere from $2.50
to $6 a week, and there were not many of the boys who could not equal the men
in doing a day’s work in plain-typesetting. Hamilton was not alone in paying
starvation wages to its printers, for the average all through Canada was not
more than $7 to $8 a week, though a few might go ‘over the top’ and get $9.
About the same year, or maybe a little before, the Toronto printers got their
courage up and started a society and gave the scale a boost to $9 a week. This encouraged
the Hamilton boys, and they determined to try their luck, and the result was
that on the night of the 6th of March, 1854, eighteen of the
journeymen met in the Sons of Temperance ante-room, there not being enough of
them to occupy the hall, and the Hamilton Typographical society was duly and
solemnly organized. There were more journeymen in town, but they were cautious
fellows and wanted to see how the society would take with the employers, before
venturing into its membership. All of the boys were enthusiastic to join, but
in those days, it required an apprenticeship of five years to be admitted into
a trade society.
“Of the eighteen
journeymen who met on that March night sixty-five years ago, only one of the
charter members still lives, and he is the writer of this bit of history. Let
us call the roll ; William Cliff, president; Charles Kidner, vice-president;
Richard R. Donnelly, treasurer. Committee – D.G. Mitchell, Walter Campbell, Richard
Butler, chairman. Members – John Blake, William Burniss, John Christian,
William Cullin, J. Gregory, Alexander Linkster, John Love, Thomas McNamara,
Henry Richards, Charles Roberston, William Rowland.
“At the first
meeting, provision was made for the admission of apprentices in their last
year. These boys were drawing as much wages as some of the men at that time,
but the rule was that one had to be a full-fledged printer to entitle him to
membership. At the second meeting Thomas Hynds, A.T. Freed, Reese Evans and
William Nixon knocked at the door and were joyfully admitted. The two Hooper brothers,
John and William, had arrived from England a few months later, and William J.
McAllister came up from Toronto, and they became members. When the cautious
ones saw that there was no danger in joining the society, nearly of the journeymen
became enrolled as members.
“After the first
meeting came the tug of war; a constitution had to be adopted and a scale of
prices decided upon. What a modest lot of printers there was in those days!
They did not want the earth, but they wanted to keep out of the house of
refuge, and they set the scale so low that the employers could not reasonably
complain of extortion. Nine dollars a week and twenty-seven cents a thousand
(illegible) for place hands! Well, it was not so bad in those days, especially
as other trades were paying less for their labor. Only one of the employing
printers demurred when the scale was presented to him by the committee for his
approval. Robert Smiley, the editor of the Spectator, would not sanction the
scale, not that he thought it out of the way, but objected to allowing any
society of workmen to fix the price for their work. All of the other employers
promptly acceded, and paid the society the compliment of being moderate and
fair in its demand. Mr. Smiley held out for a week or more, and then very
gracefully notified the committee to send his men back to work. For sixty-five
years, every printing office in Hamilton has paid the union scale of wages, and
from $9 a week it has steadily increased till today the weekly pay envelope
bulges out with not less than $25,
“And then, the best
of all is, that no employee in a Hamilton printing office has to go home at the
end of the week without his pay envelop and every dollar of his earnings in it.
It was different sixty-five years ago, when one went home with half, or less,
of his week’s wages in cash, and the balance in orders on some store in town.
It might not be out of place to insert just here that in the spring of 1855
Robert Smiley died, a comparatively rich man for those days. In 1846, he came
to Hamilton from Montreal, where he was employed in the government printing
office, with less ready money in his pocket than the average printer now carries
home in his weekly pay envelope. It was not meaness that made him refuse the
scale of prices, but merely stubbornness of an Irishman who would not be dictated
to.
“In the early days
the printers’ union made it a rule to change officers every two years, in order
to give all the boys a chance to reach the top. In 1856, the officers elected
were : Charles Kidner, president; Alex. Linkster, vice-president; Richard
Butler, secretary; R.L. Gay, treasurer. In 1857, there was another whirl, and
Richard Butler was elected president; John Blake, vice-president; Allan A.
Shepard, secretary; Charles Kidner, treasurer; W.J. McAllister, William Hooper,
William Nixon, vigilance committee.
“Under the rules of
the International Typographical union, no such ting a a sympathetic strike is
permitted, the union holding to the honorable idea that the local unions should
keep faith with the employing printers; and a local union must show good
reasons for a strike before one is permitted. The International union provides
a pension fund of $5 a week for all men over 60 years of age who have been
members of local unions for a certain number of years. There are a few old-time
Hamiltonians enjoying the benefits of the pension fund. Added to the pension is
a mortuary fund.
“In the old days
there was in every printing office a father of the chapel, who presided at all
office meetings and smoothed over many of the trifling troubles that now and
then arise among a lot of men of different temperaments.
“But
few of the old-timers who belonged to the local union forty and fifty years ago
are enjoying the fat pay envelopes of the present day, but fortunately, they
were careful in their younger days, and the house of refuge had no horrors for
them. Among the ancients, Jim Allan, Geo. R. Allan, John O’Neil, Frank Kidner,
Billy Kingdon, John Burns and little Geordie Henderson answer the cashier’s
roll call in
the Spectator office every Friday and draw their pay checks. Over in the Times office, George Bagwell, till recently, was on duty every day. In the Herald office, Henry and Phil Obermeyer still hold forth to rejoice that they are still alive. There are a few like Justus Griffin, George Redmond, the Raw boys, John Macleod, Harry Drope, Sam Trueman, Bill Barringer and others we cannot remember.
“The next labor
union to start in Hamilton about the year 1855 was the cigarmakers’. George
Tuckett was one of the charter members.
