ter of wages--we have to pay 33 per cent higher
wages than were paid at the Chicago Exposition. At that time
carpenters got 35 cents per hour--you may remember that was the
year of the panic, 1893. When we first began carpenters in this
town were getting 45 cents an hour; they are now getting 55
cents an hour, and when you bear in mind that we have 5,000
carpenters at work there, an advance of 25 per cent in wages
means something.

We broke ground on December 20, 1901, but we did that because it
was the anniversary of the transfer of this territory from the
French Government to the United States. But that was two years
ago, and in those two years wages have gone up in St. Louis from
45 to 55 cents; plumbers' wages have advanced 25 per cent;
plasterers were getting $4.50 per day--we are now paying them
$6, and on last Friday they struck for $7. The hodcarriers who
carry plaster for the plasterers are getting $4 per day--count
twenty-five working days in the month, our hodcarriers are
receiving $100 per month, which is more than educated clerks
receive. A while ago these hodcarriers struck for $4.50 per day.
* * * This is an Universal Exposition--we do not want to take a
stand against union labor, but if it is to be a Universal
Exposition we must stand by the laws of the United States so as
to admit contract labor from abroad--men who work on erecting
the foreign exhibits.

We were paying our day laborers 22 cents an hour and the
railroads throughout the country were giving them 22 1/2 cents
an hour; on the 25th of September they wrote that they had four
demands: One was the recognition of the union (no one ever knew
they had a union); second, that eight hours should constitute a
day; third, they should get 30 cents an hour, and fourth, time
and one-half for overtime. Well, in order not to stop our work I
told the men to pay them 25 cents an hour, but that we could not
limit our work to an eight-hour day; it was in the fall and we
had to take advantage of the fine weather--we would pay them 25
cents an hour and work as long as we wished them to work--ten
hours. I said to the laborers this is not a commercial
enterprise; we are not running this for gain; we have put up
$10,000,000 or $16,000,000; we are doing a patriotic duty,
celebrating an historical event. * * *