 |
firm active: 1907-1921 minneapolis, minnesota :: chicago, illinois |
Navigation ::
Home :: Commission List
::
Parabiographies
Store for Clayton F. Summy Company, alterations
Purcell and Elmslie
Chicago, Illinois 1915
Parabiographies entry, Volume for 1910
Text by William Gray Purcell
Job Date (in Parabiography): May 11, 1915
THE CLAYTON F. SUMMY COMPANY, II, Chicago, Illinois
The Clayton F. Summy Company moved from the old location on Van Buren which we had designed for them to 239 South Wabash Avenue.
We did out best with a long narrow, old-fashioned store space, but the job was mostly one of re-working the old Van Buren Street fixtures. In carrying out this installation we got a clear picture of the general frustration caused by racketeering labor unions, and grafting public officials in the Chicago Building Department. The work was paid for at high hourly wage rates, and as little done as possible per hour. The inspectors passed their judgments on the basis of creating as much nuisance as possible on the hopes that it would produce an opportunity for a little oil, and it took the full time of one man just to keep the job moving toward completion. The people at that time were in general being exploited by the Royal Family of Wall Street, although it was to be another fifteen years before they overloaded their caravan and actually ran the whole glittering procession into the ditch of 1929. I shudder to think how much worse it would be if we were obliged to live under the dictates of a labor union world with such dishonest and selfish control.
In feeling discouraged about "both your houses" in this negative picture, one should not omit to acknowledge the possibilities for the good life created by organizations like the Hapgood Soup Company, Johnson Shoe Company, Hormel Meat Company, and David Dubinski's Ladies Garment Workers.
Collection: William Gray Purcell Papers, Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota [AR:B4d1.9]
research courtesy mark hammons