Workmen's advocate., 1888-06-02
A MIGHTY MACHINE
DOWNFALL OF THE CIGAR
 MAKING INDUSTRY.
The "IrOn Scab "-Genefal Calamity Wholesale Discharge of Work. men-Why the Late Strikes
 Were LOst-lniGniSm
 and Socialism.

The general pressure noticeable in nearly all branches of business has made itself especially felt in the ci- gar-making industry, and most decidedly so in the city of New York. Thousands of cigar workers, bunch makers, etc., are idle to-day, victims of want and misery; and the workers in this branch are experi- oncing most drastically the threads made upon human labor by the machine" A reporter of the es- teemed l0lhSzeitUng, from which this a, ticle is translated, has recently had the opportunity to investigate the condition of this trade, and he found the punching machine :" operative in many clgar factories.
 What is true of this industry, is and will be demonstrated in many another, for the invention and in troductlon of machinery IS making giant strides.
 Before the introduction of the machine, bunch making was a com paratively paying occupation. The bunch makers received from two to two dollars and eighty cents per thousand scrap punches, and could make, working steadily, from five to six thousand punches per week. Now the machine has taken the place of the bunch makers, and is considerably cheaper. The iron scab works steadler, quicker, and, what IS of more importance to the active manufacturer, doesn't strike. Only one girl operator is necessary to run the machine, and she can turn out from twenty-four to twenty five thousand punches a week by its aid.
 The operator receives, according to reliable information, about seven dollars a week, or twcnty-nine cents per thousand punches. The enter prislng boss pays a royalty of four dollars for the use of the machine, and reaps an enormous profit in con sequence. In this manner thous- ands have been thrown out of em- ployment, their families have the cold prospect of starvation, while the boss enjoys the situation, and as far as his whilom employees are con- cerned, why, they can beg if they're hungry.
 It is estimated that there are two hundred and eighty of such bunch ing machines in operation in New New York alone.
 But the bunch maker is not the only one that IS cast aside by the machine, for the inventor has en- tered the domain of "rolling," and rolling machine has more recently come into use, and is rolling che roots ill George P. Lies factory, Formerly cheroots were made by practical cigarmakers at four dollars per thousand, and a workman could thus earn from ten to fifteen dollars per wee k TOW these men earn at this work say five or six dollars a week, working ten hours a day.
 And this is not all. Cigars always required practiced roller to make them, but not; now the machine ras come into play in this line also. Two or three weeks ago the finn of Me- Coy discharged all their cigar mak- CTS, and now manufacture cigars by the machine. Formerly the firm paid from four dollars and ninety cents to five dollars and sixty cents for rolling a thousand cigars; now the machinist " gets two dollars and fifty cents per thousand. The rolling machine Is said to be used onl Y as an experiment now, but 1t Is fact that the machine IS worked steady" and it is reported that one or two firms have made arrange ments to use them. The firm of Powell X Wenigman hay a factory at Kingston, N. r.. , where machine cigars are made. and the girl opera