Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-02-28

Boston Leather Trade--shoemakers' Strike
The hide and leather trade Of Boston thirty
wears ago was represented by eight or nine
houses whose aggregate business amounted to
eight or nine hundred thousand dollars year,
which was thought to be large business in
those days. According to the Traveller there are
now between thirty and forty regular hide and
leather houses in Boston, some of which trans
act a business Of from five hundred thousand
dollars to million Of dollars each annually,
and one above a million and quarter. The
aggregate sales Of the hide and leather houses
il not far from twelve millions Of dollars, and
the leather business Of other houses and non
resident tanners is some eight millions more,
swelling tie total present annual sales of hides
and leather in Boston to the enormous amount
oftwenty millions Of dollars
The boot and shoe manufactures of Massa-
chusstts produce annually an amount Of goods
valued at sixty millions Of dollars, and for a
large proportion Of the stock the manufacturers
resort to Boston; and there is no place in the
world where so many boots and shoes are sold
in an equal area, as in that single thOrOuRhfaTe
of Boston known as Pearl street. For ten
are past the shoe trade has been hourishing,
and crisis has at last come in the business
Bosses without capital have multiplied, too
much work and too poor work, in too many in
stances, have been pressed upon the market,
prices Of workmen have become too low to al
low them to live comfortably at the PRESENT
prices Of provisions, breadstuffs and rents, and
the result is very general strike among the
cordwainers Of several towns in Massachusetts.
Lynn led ofTFeb 22d, the jOuTneymsn shOema-
kers of fNatick, HaverhilI, Marblehead, Milford,
NswburypOTt, Dover, &c, partially joining in
the strike for higher wages. Lynn was the
focus Of excitement; professions of operatives
marehed the streets, riots began to break out,
when the police and military were called into
reeuisition to preserve order and give security
TO property. The binders and stitehers, women
of Lynn, held meeting and joined in the strike,
and at the last account no agreement had been
arTived st between employees and employers.
The Lynn journeymen demand an advance in
prices Of from ten to twenty-five per cent 1t
is claimed that the average wages of the work
men have not much exceeded IS aWeek. Some
Of the workmsn have made SO to sI2 per week,
and others considerably below the average Of IS.
The Boston Traveller says:
The shoe manufacture here has probably
now reached ifs maximum. The West is very
much depressed, and finds neceFsity Of resort
ing to some additional industrial development
besides agriculture. They win doubtless begin
upon the cOaFser kind Of shoes, and Massaehu-
sets can only retain her present vantsge ground
by seeing to It that the material and WoTkman-
ship are kept up in high standard.
The effect Of the present strike will doubtless
be to distribute the inferior workmen among
the farmers and fishermen Of the State, and
add laborers here and to our merchant marine,
where they are much needed. They viii add,
there is reason to believe, better class Of Ia
borers TO the interior and to the seaboard than
the generality Of those now employed, and in
this way all departments Of business may be
benefited after the efferveseence has passed
away. The most skillful WOrkmen among the
jouTneymen will then probably be able to resume
work at fair rate Of compensation.