Employed by a Paving Company—The Growth of Los Angeles—Its Land Values—A Centre for Tourists.

The Uvalde Asphalt Company started a paving company to use up their products, and, as I was getting very tired of the mines, and also seemed to have reached the maximum salary that the Company would pay for my position, I applied for a job on the paving end, where I should have a pleasanter life and possibly a chance of promotion, besides learning another side of the work. The head office, however, told me that they needed me where I was, and therefore could not transfer me; and then put a green man into the position I had asked for, paying him $125 per month, while I was only getting $75! I wrote to a number of different paving companies, and the asphalt trust offered me a place as yard foreman in Los Angeles at three dollars per day, provided the Uvalde Company would give me a good letter of recommendation. The Uvalde Company then made me some vague promises as to the future, but I refused to stay, and finally they gave me a really very good letter.

181So on the 26th October 1902 I left Cline, Texas (where I had worked seven years and seven months) for California. My people thought me foolish in leaving a company where I was known, and had made some small record, and in which I also held a good share, to go to another concern where I was unknown and had no friends. This may apply to England, where long service is appreciated, but it does not apply to America. Here a new man has as good or really a better show than one long in the firm’s employ; in fact, when I arrived in Los Angeles, I found that I was to supersede a man who had been sixteen years in the Barber Company, and who was acting yard foreman till my arrival.

My own experience has been that if a man starts in a concern at a very low salary, he can never work up past a certain figure. I suppose it is natural to think—“This man used to work for so much a day, and we have more than doubled his salary since he has been with us, and he is an ungrateful hog if he wants more.” And even if they are forced to give the amount asked for, sooner than lose the man, there is a feeling of soreness at the man’s ingratitude. People rarely consider that they cannot get another man to do the same work for the same money. When I first went to Cline the foreman’s salary was $125 per month, 182and he had no office work whatsoever to do. I started as labourer at $1.25 per day and worked up to twice that rate, or $75 per month, as foreman; at which figure I was doing not only the foreman’s regular work but most of the office work as well, yet because I had started at low wages the company thought I was well paid. When I arrived in Los Angeles and reported for duty, the general manager took me over the works and introduced me to the men who were to work under me; then we returned to the office and he posted me as to my men and duties. The chief engineer (who had been acting foreman) was, he told me, an old man and trusted employee, whom, however, he could not use as foreman as he had not the ability to handle men. The manager said, “As to him, I would like you to try and get along with him, bearing in mind that he will be angry with you for taking the position which he thinks should have been his; but if you cannot get along I shall have to find another place for him.” Of course I know that in such cases a new foreman has to prove himself to his men before they will look up to him and readily recognise his authority. I was young, and the men would begin to take liberties unless I could show them that “I knew where I was at,” as they said in Texas. Luckily for me, my opportunity came at once, for I had noticed on going over 183the plant with the manager, one improvement that would do away with a lot of unnecessary work in connection with the screening of the different grades of gravel and sand. I made my proposal of a change to Mr. Arthur, the general manager, and he asked the opinion of the chief engineer, who happened to be near. The latter at once laughed at the idea and said it was impracticable. I insisted, and said I would stake my job on the result, and then Mr. Arthur told me to go ahead. I took some of the men and tore down the screens and rigged one the way I had proposed, and it turned out the success I had predicted. This was sufficient for all the men, except the prejudiced engineer, that I knew my business; and they all seemed friendly disposed with the exception of him and the mixer-man (the man who had charge of the mixing of the paving material). One day one of the men said to me, "I guess you are all right, so I want to warn you to look out for Harry Kern (the engineer) and \'Old George\' (the mixer-man), who are doing all they can against you; the former at the office and the latter amongst the men." I soon had proof of this, for one day the cashier (a great friend of Harry’s) came out of the office and spoke to me most offensively about some reports which he wanted me to make at once for him. I told him to 184get back to his office, that I allowed nobody to boss me in my own yard so long as I was foreman; that seemed to settle him, and then I took the bull by the horns and went to see Harry, to whom I talked like a “Dutch uncle.” I told him it could do him no good if they made it unpleasant enough to make me resign, as he would never get the job of foreman; that I had not known of th............