"Graft"—Seeking Contracts in Los Angeles—In Charge of Street Work—Crooked Business.

Winston Churchill’s Coniston and Mr. Crewe’s Career explain the methods of bosses and railway presidents, and their conflicts or combinations for the robbing of the public in America. For the railways it may perhaps be said that they have to protect themselves against the “Bosses,” and for the “Bosses” that they are what the people make them: at any rate, I need not discuss the forms of that business immorality against which Mr. Roosevelt has struggled. But I will try to give some idea of the rottenness of the contracting business and the city officials, and truly it was awful. But what can be expected when contractors make their men scoundrels in order to hold their jobs, and teach them to rob the public, and then are horrified when they are robbed or cheated by their own men! Then the men, many of whom have no idea of honour, are all the time trying to hurt one another in order to show up well with the company; of this I shall say more later on. Those who 190are inclined to seek fortune in America must reckon with such difficulties.

Los Angeles is a very expensive town to live in, and I soon found that financially I had not made a change for the better. But I was gaining in experience in my business, and being in a city, had a better chance to look for openings than I had when cut off from the world, as I was out at the Uvalde Mines. A good part of my work consisted in going round town keeping track of all building and improvement work going on, and trying to get contracts for paving cellars, driveways, and warehouse floors; in fact, anything I could obtain. For this purpose the company gave me the use of a horse and dog-cart. I would see a fine house going up, try to find the architect, get the specifications, and, if asphalt was mentioned, would put in a bid on the spot. I was given a free hand as to prices, the only condition being that the work should show some profit, and, in case the other companies had put in a bid, I was to cut their bid if I could do it without showing a decided loss. In the case of a very big job, or something that might lead to more work, I referred to Mr. Arthur, who would sometimes take the work even at a loss, to keep the other fellow from getting it. This does not sound like good business, but our company was the largest, and could 191stand a small loss if Mr. Arthur could keep the other fellow without work, so that his pay-roll should eat him up. We could stand the game longer than they except for politics. Of this and our final downfall I shall write in another chapter.

After I had been some months with the company my salary was raised to $3.50 per day, and I was put in charge of the work on the street, and turned the yard over to a man who came down from a branch in San Francisco. The company employed at this time in Los Angeles, beside the general manager, two superintendents, myself as foreman of the asphalt gang, and a yard foreman to whom I had given over charge of that job. Some weeks after the change this man Bister asked me to come up to his room as he wanted to see me about something important. One night I did go, and he informed me that he had heard that the company was going to cut operating expenses, and some of us would be let out as soon as the present rush of work was over. One of the superintendents, Mr. Weber, was drinking, he said, and he proposed that I should join himself and the other superintendent, Cressfield, to get Weber discharged; in return for which Cressfield would guarantee our jobs to Bister and me. I never found out if he had any authority from Cressfield to make me such a proposition, 192but in order to clinch me, he said that Weber had been speaking rather disparagingly about my work. I laughed at him and told him that I wanted no hand in the fight as I was not interested enough, and that when the company wanted my job back they could have it. Finally, however, they dragged me into the ............