Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-05
He Points Out to the Trades C0un-
ell How 1t Can be Done.
SOME DENIALS OF LABOR CHARGES.
Another Refusal to Coerce His Employees
to Join the Union.
STANDING ON A RECORD OF 26 YEARS.

trail Trades Council, does not contemplate
doing So Mr.. Marvin is sorry he cannot
grant the request OF the Council who
asked him to step down and out on account
of labor troubles in his factory, and he says
the people who are trying to injure him are
taking the wrong course to get him out OF
the Exposition. He says that the proper
way to oust him is to secure enough life
memberships at the rate of 500 each, and
elect some other person at the annual meet
ing of the managers.
Mr.. Marvin arrived home Thursday
night after an absence OF over two weeks
in the East where he went to secure much
needed rest after his arduous duties attend
ant upon the opening of the Exposition. He
was found at his residence on Anderson
avenue, East End, by DISPATCH reporter
last night, and when asked if he would re-
sign his position, he said:
"No, / do not intend to resign on the re-
quest of the Trades Council or any other
organization which has a fancied grievance
against me. / do not see why that antag-
onism which some of the organized labor
leaders of this city have against me, and my
priyate business should interfere with
public enterprise like the Exposition. do
not recognize their right to ask me to re-
sign my position, and 1 do not see why l
should.
1T WILL REQUIRE DOODLE.
eff they wish to get me out, let them pro-
ceed about it in fair and Legitimate man.
ner. Life memberships only cost 500 each,
and 900 of them would be enough to dis
place me. l also do not recognize that the
persons who asked me to resign represented
the thinking laboring classes and wage
workers of the county.
'tThe grievance that these men have against
me is all in their Imagination. Because l
would not compel the men working for me
to ioin the Bakers Assembly they ordered
strike and forced about II or 15 of my en-
ployes who were in the union to quit. The
men whom thev wanted me to discharge
were good workmeu, and why 1 should
make it my business to force them into the
knights of Labor is more than
l can see. 1 asked them if
they wanted to join the union and
they told me no. 1 gave them full permis-
sion to do so, and they said they would not
Join the Knights of Labor under any cir
cumstances. They told me that if it was
choice of either going into the union or be-
ing discharged they would take the latter.
If man came to me and tried to force me
into an organization l did not want to join
l would think it was high-handed proceed
ing. If l took this view of the matter in my
own case whv should / not extend the same
privilege to my men? 1t mattered not to me
whether they were in 100 labor unions or
none at all so long as they did their work.
When the public was asked to boycott me
determined to stand by my men, and will
continue to do so until the last.
fST oluavs frnatpd the men in emnIov
with the greatest consideration. l was an
employe myself once, and know what it is
to work for a living. Long before there
was a union of bakers in this city / short
ened the hours of my men. l was the first
baker in Allegheny county to make 10 hours
davis work, when other factories were rum
ming IA and Is hours. This was over 20
years ago, and l have been running my fac
tory that way ever since. Our men were
satisfied with their treatment until the strike
was ordered last spring.
HIS DENIAL EMPHATIC.
sfIn regard to the statement that we vio-
lated the agreement to employ only organized
labor, say it is false. We kept the agree
ment to the very letter, but organized labor
did not do the same. The Great Western
Band convinced us that they were union
men, and had they not done so, we would
not have hired them. 1 have been in this
community for the past 26 years, and defy
any one to show wherein 1 did not
keep an agreement. On the con-
trary, can show where labor has
violated agreements with me. When
/ signed the bakers scale last spring, it
was to run for one year. We did not run 80
days until they came at me with an agree
ment that was not on the scale. This was to
discharge the men who had refused to join
the union, and did not sign tie supple
mentary document. They then broke their
obligation by ordering the strike. When
signed the scale we had distinct under
standing that the non-union men in my en-
ploy were to remain there, but 1 was not to
hire outsiders who were not in the union. 1t
is foolish to talk about violating an agree
meDt.
1.-The men who ordered that strike were
foolish. They were building up magnif-
cent organization, and in two or three years
more they might have had nearly every
baker in the two cities in it. Now, do
not know of one cracker factory in Pitts
burg or Allegheny which is, strictly speak
ing, union. They should have been con-
tent to let well enough alone instead of pre-
cipitating matters in a blind manner.
81 am satisfied to let organized labor run
my business provided they paw me for it.
am willing to sell out at any time if they
will buy. As long as l furnish the capital
and haqe to stand all the losses shall GER
tainly insist upon running it to suit myself.
BIG IMPROVEMENTS MADE.
'T have Just expended over 800, 900 in
improvements at my factory, and labor was
directly benefited. The Exposition Society
spent nearly half million dollars which
went into the pockets of wage workers, yet
organized labor is not satisfied. 1 really do
not know what they want 1 wish it stated
once for all that will never force my men
into any organization they do not wish to
join.
SIN our factory the men have a mutual
benefit association. About three-fourths of
them are in il. They are banded together
for their own protection in sickness, and l
think this is the best kind of q labor organ
ization. They do not pay money into The
treasury to be spent for salaries of master
workmen, hire of halls, walking delegates
and other expenses peculiar to the present
organized system of labor. What they pay
into the organization benefits them when
they become sick or disabled.
81 have also heard the rumored talk of a
boycott against the Exposition. Such action
1 think would be folly. The Exposition
was organized to give technical education
to young men of Pittsburg, who could not
otherwise get it. In ten years we will have
a polytechnic school of some kind estab-
Iished, and if the wage workers OF the county
want to tear down what we are building up
that is their business. We will certainly