New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-08-21
GLASS WORKERS AROUSED.
MR.. CLEvELAND'S POLICY MENACEs THEM
WITH RUIN


saw what an excellent site there for a village at
this point in tho valley, and establishing nancd It
after Mr.. Corning. Years passed, Mr.. Corning died,
and thriving town grew up. Then Mr.. CornIng's
son. also named Erasus Corning recognition OF the
honor done bis father presented TO the village hand
some stone clock and bell tower. 1t stands in the
centre of the village to-day little open plaza
surrounded with the chief business houses and hotels
OF the place. The tower is Of red granite, is about
twenty feet in height, and has peaked roof directly
beneath which on the four sides of the the
gildcd faces Of clock which has bell which clangs
out the hours Of passing time to all residents Com
| Ing
In the business quarter OF the town one sees aris
Ing tall circular brick chmneys which surrounded
by large buildings. and is told that these
| glass works and that Cornings chief prosperity Is
| derived from them. The presence near by, in Penn
sylvania OF extensive fields Of soft COAL nsurng cheap
iuci, Induced several glass manufacturers years
ago to establish their works here. In recent years
kindred industry, that Of glass cutting has been
created hero, and both trades successfully
Quoted When goes into TiTany's other jewelry
stores In New-York. and secs exquisite pieces OF cut
glass, he may be sure that among them from
| the Corning factories. There are not many in
| America, and those who live In Corning glow with
pride whom they told in the jewelry of the
large cities that the Corning cut glass handsome
and as much In demand by lovers OF artistic objects
and by wealthy people any cut glass made in
Europe.
just now the manufacturers Of cut glass here arc
IN troubled state OF mind owing to tho passage by
the Democratic House of Representatives Of Mr. Millss
Tariff BILL which reduces tho duty on cut glass; and
lays open American markets foreign manuactu rers
OF the article. There two manufactures Of cut |
glas, here, one Of which employs ESQ men and the |
other $50 men Most Of the glasscutters arc married
men, Estimating that there four persons in each
family Of the rlasscutters, there are thus 500 per-
sons who are personally interested the result Of the
an1x -hn
pocket II the Mills Tariff bill were TO become a law
c. II. voorhees,, one Of tho superlntcndents In the
gasscutting establishment OF G. III. Iioughton said
rev DAYS ago: The present duty on cut glass IS A
per cont The Mills bill reduces It 10 cents adj
valocm That Is reduction OF over 90 per cent.
We would rather have free trade at once t.an this
gradual reduction proposed. Constant agitation Of
tho tariff question hurts business because lndsposes
buyers TO make purchases. They fear that II they
buy our cut glass there may be a reduction of the
tariff, and thus their stock OF cut glass would de-
precfate on their hands. Moreover do not like to
60 on manufacturing and to accumulate a largo stock
OF goods with the prospect OF perhaps the tariff being
substantially destroyed, and then having TO meet the
competition In the market of tho goods OF foreign man.
ufacturers made by cheap labor In that
should have TO sell accumulated stock at less than
cost But IL free trade should come in at we
could rcarrango our business to the new situa-
ton We would be compelled 10 pay much lower
wages and adopt Other methods in our business
Buyers are now reluctant to buy, and do not dare
to manufacture goods which might fall 20 per cent
value In less than week. We manufacture cut
glass with any sense Of security in view Of the action
of the Democratic House OF Representatives In our
business labor is the largest item. We take plcco
of glass from the glass blowing Establishments costing
only twenty cents ard iu many cases put SJG II
labor upon It, II this agitation Of the Democrats lasts
five years the weaker cut class establishments will all
go into bankruptcy Oar best worhmen in the glass
blowing works Get go day the ordinary 81 TO SIS
day, and apprentices 81 so to So so day. We have
$50 lassbuwers. and 225 glass-cutters Tho glass
cutters get from 80 80 to 81 a day. Our principal
business IS fine goods and table We compete q
with Webb, Of London and other makers Of fine cut ,
glass In Europe But Webb and other manufactures of r.
cnt glass in Europe pay their far less As It is
the duty cut glass goods IS only nomnaly As Der
cent BY deductions OF commissions by claims OF
broken packages, by deductions for inland carriage
The goods OF foreign cut glass manufacturers are I'M
icrvalued until the duty actually paid many con- n
znments is only about 80 per cent. Reduce tue +
iuy to 10 per cent and substantially free trade would
olow. Our men would suffer severely. Now our
men own their own houses. have and many Of t.
HON have horses In articles the foreign glass
yare manufacturers now havo the market TO them. a.
elves. For instance. cannot mako cut glass pen- OF
ents for chandeliers; for the foreign operatives are
aid such small wages that they mako q dozen
endents at the samo price at which We could only
make one PENDENT d
1t that Senator Hscock Intends to put a W
aragraph In tho Senate Tariff BILL now under al
reparation, which will aid the gasscuttcrs of Corn
,g Mr.. III. P. Sinclair employe OF T. G.
hawkes., one Of the manufacturers OF cnt glass in
ornng said Friday that he had recently received
letter from Senator Hiscock, asking him to stale By
hat the proportion of deductions made at the al
ustom House Offices for breakagcs Of cut glass eA
r. Hlscock further said that ho had been informed m
lat the proportion large and that 1t materially ma
duced the price OF cut glass. In closing his letter .
r. Hscock said: Under the present law the COM ~
isson charges, the value Of packages at the port w
departure and damage to the cutglass goods in ~
them here are all deducted before the ~
ities are imposed levied. suppose this wcre '"
ranged and no such deductions made before -"
70 duties arc levied and that the present adj vaorcm
tiles were retained, what per cent would your -,
OBJECTION probably be dncreased!' g,
Mr. Sinclair said: In response to these questions wa
sresn sooSs W" soa him that our last
ckages cost S14 81. and that our breakage was only
40 and the percentage TO the the goods was no
ly 41-100 per cent In response TO this letter.
nator Hscock said that he was surprised at our ia
atemcnts that the percentage to be deducted was in
ly 4l10O per cent as he had been led to think ties
figures of the Treasury Department that the deduc- No
m much larger We replied that the Treasury bee
partment right, and also were right-that Iris
figures of the Treasury Department were forwarded in
the whole amount of glass I'm ported and that her
ere a good deal of cheap lsht cut glass I'M VI.
rted which the percentage Of breakage was ,r,c
ch larger the goods not being so costly when -
ey broken the percentage Of breakage was secl
ger. They arc ill-packed and many Of them ars Jan
,Ben In transit we told senator Hiscock that
often bought light French umbers I'm twenty five ,
'an a. nacl,aro ,rLtc, ,.a. = - 49,, vi moi
- 81, s n,-,,si.o ein, IaS az Ecr pirehas9 viii
,or I,ecoct In reenonsa , 80 =, - Siso plu Wal
~ GOOD yrorh,n In tho c,t s NE ,sLu, the
England made from 81 to 50 a week while fin this JUL
intry the made from sI4 10 $50 a
elk, and in Germany tho glass-cutters receive only
a week. II is almost impossible therefore, |
us to compete with the German or tho Englsh | Clul
glass manufacturers Even II me duty on cut ODE
win