The New York herald., 1874-12-04
THE CARPET WEAvERS' STRIKE
What the Operatives OF Higgins Carpet
Factory Say About tho Reduction OF

What the Operatives OF Higgins Carpet
Factory Say About tho Reduction Of
Wages.
The vicinity Of Higgins monster carpet factory,
at Forty.tnird street and Eleventh avenue, pre-
sented q most extraordinary appearance OF qui-
etude yesterday. The $500 hands VINO struck on
December l. owing to the proposed reduction OF
wages used to invest the neighborhood naturally
with an air OF busting activity which has been
totally wanting since the beginning Of the strike.
A more peaceabie and undemonstrative strike Of
workingmen-or rather, working women, lor the
majority Of the strikers are girls-has, probably,
never been witnessed In this city. They all seem
30 be determined to light 1t out. meanwhile obs
serving simply Q passive attitude. ave don't
strike from mere fancy,n SAID one frail girl yes
terday, whose thin, emaciased face gave evidence
OF close OF confinement and severe labor ''but be.
cause Mr.. Higgins wants to take our bread away.
The wages We have received hitherto are scarcely
high enough to enable us TO
KEEP BODY AND SOUL TOGETHER
and to pay the exorbltant rents which Mr.. Hig-
gins who has bought up the tenements In the
neighborhood, exacts from US. Mr.. Higgins wants
TO cut down our wages by sums varying from ten
reduced OR rent to corresponding ngure.n
MI. Higgins Was called upon yesterday and he
declined 70 state "a wnai ne paid to the va
yond what appeared In yesterday's issue Of this
journal From the statement OF the employees,
however, IL appears that the majority OF them get
nom $50 TO SO month. the reduction proposed
by Mr.. Higgins is fifteen per cent for all earnings
those amounting 70, less than $40 per month. The
weavers, who are ell t1iN earued from Ss4 to $45
Who Ris % are men. ma about sss wn de secson D chief:
and machinists made about 500 month. The
9n gs $40 month n Dhs m1a
utes past Six O'Clock 2. NJ, with only three
quarters Of an hours pause for dinner at noon.
n N 10
three O'Clock the afternoon, that they iabored
altogether sixty hours week,
OR TEN HOURS A DAY.
The pay to by the piece, the weavers OF tapestry
carpets. for instance, being paid three and three
is believed by the operatives. are lower than are
even the reduced wages al other factories IN the
class who Complain most bitterly OF the proposed
starvation rates" are the ''pickers,n all girls
.e 0FPss as1 shsy M nave o go o Of
'.0ne thing Is certatn,n said one OF these girls,
'and that Is that Mr. Higgins is bound TO yield.
for we would rather go TO other factories in Phia.
delphia, DC, tnan work for him Ut the proposed
rates; and L the girls more particularly the
months before he can again open the factory.n Ic
would take him three or four months to teach
and this was shown year ago, when ne also tried
TO enforce reduction OF ten per cent. and was
resistance OF these 'setters.n
Tne operatives are OF all nationaliries-scotch,
Irish, English. ,ss German and also lew French:
would
CONSENT TO NO CoApROMrsE
as Mr.. Higgins IS millionaire and can AFFORD TO
pay his hands decent wages, more especially as he
exacted quite 'decent' rents from those who
lived IN the numerous tenements he has built near
his manulactory. He is snrewd business man,
they SAID. who is undoubtedly bent upon making
as much money as he can, but that Is no reason,
they thought. why he should atJempt to starvo
them. Nine dollars or $40 week was little
enough for any one to live upon, and many did not
get even that much. and how could any one be ex-
pected TO work ten hours Tor lesss They all agreed
upon the fact that they cannot be easily sup
planted by unskfled hands, as 'longshoremen for
instance and that Mr. Higgins win have to pay
the old rates II he wanted 70 keep his factory run.
ming in the future.
What the result win be II is impossible to fore
tell, but from present appearances 1t would seem
that the difhculty Will not De settled this week, as
has been anticipated Efforts will be made 70
efect compromise, but IL seems extremely
doubtful whether any Of the mill hands VIII con-
sent to the proposed reduction OF wages. the
weavers will hold meeting some time next week,
and meanwhile some 1000 or 1000 persons tfor
many Of the girls support large famil1es are suf-
fering under this conflict between labor and
can