The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1889-12-01
Skilled. Unskilled.

Cohansey Glass Co., Bridgeton. 100 450
Kirby & Mcbride, Bridgeton.... 2s 100
Bodine, Thomas & Co., Will
JAMESTOWN -. ................. 10 $50
TOTAL. ..-...,...-...... S0o 3SSo
The 865 men are all experienced glass
blowers. They can make between IS and
ST day under the union schedule. They
have made hard fight and they are not
yet ready to give in, but money is rum
ming low and the factory owners are OBJ
stinate to degree that was probably
never equalled before.
More Uhan two months ago THE JERSEY
CITY NEWS was the first paper in the
country to announce the fact that strike
would occur, and to explain the causes
which underlay the difficulty. The main
question was not one of wages, but con-
cerned the number of apprentices which
ers to employ. 1t has always been the
policy of the union to keep this number
down.
A BOTTLE MAKING MACHINE.
If the men return to the shops again
they will find in at least one OF them
something much more offensive than an
extra boy would have been, viz: an APP
prentice of wheels and axles, a machine,
in Short for making bottles. speak of
it as an apprentice advisedly, for it hasn't
learned its business yet. 1t doesn't make
good BOTTLES. and if there We're no hope of
failure. 1t was invented in an English
glass town, and the one now in use in
South Jersey was made over there. The
manufacturers are keeping the facts
about it rather dark, and are trying to
conceal the manner of its coming over
hut | am warranted in saying that it has
not come up to their expectations. They
claim that the machine is old, and that
its failure is due to this and to bad con-
struction and not to the principle. Sew
eral more machines have been ordered.
Whether the strike will be settled before
they can be brought over is question
which nobody can solve
STARTING THE FIRES.
Within few weeks the manufacturers
have made desperate efforts to get out
some bottles. The market is beginning
to demand them, and manufacturers are
growing more and more anxious to start
the furnaces. The Whitney Glass Works
have already put one furnace in opera
ton, and it is the knowledge that they
will start another on Monday which has
stirred up the locked out employees
to a pitch which arouses feelings of
serious apprehension. The boys who
have been put to work as blowers in
Glassboro have made so great success,
so Mr.. John p. Whitney Of the company
claims, that their number will be in
creased. The starting Of the second
factory will be viewed with real alarm by
the men, and some threats have been
made which it is greatly to be hoped will
not be carried out Mr.. Whitney says
that he will protect the "boys' if he has
to surround his factory with troops
Bodine, Thomas & Co., at Williams
town, have started furneee with BOYS,
and the Woodbury. Glass Works have
also had fires under a small furnace.
''The great fact which this strike has
brought out" said one of the manufac-
turers to me today, 'iS that it doesn't
take a half dozen years for man to learn
to make bottles. That has been the clai II
of the blowers, but it has been exploded.
The boys have taken hold in great
shape"
OF course it is very much for this mans
interest to think SO. or at least to say SO,
especially to a newspaper correspondent.
No skilled glassblower would admit it
any more readily today than at any time
in the past. 1t is also certain that the
manufacturers do not want to educate
the boys All the men who are locked out
could come back If they would accept the
terms offered at the time of the strike
and consent to the retention of the boys
who have given bona fide promise of eff
cheney
BITTER FIGHT.
But this lock out is bitterer than any
trouble that has preceded it. In Glass
boro, for instance, Mr.. Whitney used to
meet his men when they were out on q
StlfkS ana exchange Salutat1onS pleas
antly with the remark '-"Well, Billy,
are you coming back to work pretty
soon, or words to that effect. He doesn't
do it now. Both sides are too much in
earnest-to put it mildly.
Down in Clayton the head Of the firm
of Moore Brothers has always taken
deep interest in the welfare of the men.
He has worked up the building of a SEQ
operative church" in which the men own
shares; he has started a building and
loau association, and many of the men
own their homes through its influences.
OF course it was to his advantage to have
his workmen tied to the town by their
ownership of real estate. 1t made them
less willing to strike. The state OF feel
ing among the men in Clayton has almost
always been good, and they have gone
out reluctantly when ordered to strike by
the Union. Now, however Mr.. Moore is
said to 'haye his back up" and to swear
that he will run the factory as ne pleases
after this.
The men have held out Loyalty all the
way through. They feel that there is
great deal at stake. They hope to win
yet; and by far tn e greater number put
their faith in peaceful methods.
But will the minority overstep the
bounds? That is the question of the
hour down here in South Jersey, and
eyes are turned anxiously towards Glass
boro.
c..-5U.- ntsorsta- 81.