50 SEVENTEENTH REPORT. 



and thereby imderbid the others. (*G0.) Although the foremen no 

 longer get presents, it is kno^^•^l that jouraej^men give the boss a 

 certain sum of monej' at the beginning of work. This sum is gradu- 

 ally returned in the pay envelope. Thus the amount in the pay 

 envelope is in accordance with the minimum wage rule, but a part 

 of it is a return of money advanced by the journeyman. This is a 

 subtile method of underbidding. One official said, ''the Jews have 

 a contract system of returning wages that is hard to beat." They 

 give the contractor |50.00 for a guarantee of work for a certain 

 length of time when another $50.00 is paid. Or they borrow from 

 the boss, and this is increased above the actual figure in the pay 

 envelope on pay da}'. Detectives get jobs on the foregoing basis at 

 the suggestion of the boss. (*62.) This official and several journey- 

 men thought this practice quite generally used by the Jews and 

 Swedes. (*61.) 



The presence of an unemployed group and their theory of under- 

 cutting necessitates standards and uniform units of measurement. 

 Thus the first of the hypothetical theories is accounted for. This 

 assumption of the constant over-supply of labor also presupposes 

 that there is a fixed group demand for labor, thus their theory of a 

 fixed group demand or "'lump of labor*' theory. 



The third theory to be considered is that of the fixed grou|) de- 

 mand. This fixed group demand is usually approached through the 

 desire to share Avork among their members, which the}' accomplish 

 by limiting the supply of labor. Their rules on apprenticeship so 

 limit the number of apprentices that it is said that only the sons 

 of the most prominent journeymen are indentured. The number of 

 apprentices range from one to two per cent of the number of journey- 

 men. Rushing and excessive work have the same effect upon the 

 supply of labor, through the 1 imitation of the amount of work to be 

 done in a certain time. The eight hour day and holidays limit the 

 number of Avorking hours and thus limit the labor supply. The fixed 

 group demand theory is supported by their experience of unem- 

 ployment. The leaders contend that the unemployed are as nume- 

 rous under low Avages as they are under high Avages. The hypothesis 

 is that there is a certain amount of carpentering to be done in Chi- 

 cago. This is fixed by the number of persons who live there. To 

 quote an official, "a man wouldn't live in a tent if wages were high 

 nor in tAvo houses if they Avere Ioav.'' Of course this opinion would 

 not bear strict interpretation nor do they claim that for it. The 

 constant increase in the scale of Avages and the accompanying de- 



