The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-03-27
CRISPINS STRIKE.
A Labor Difficulty on Jes-
sic Street.
sHoEMAKERs ARE ANGRY
Factory Operators Claim That the
Teams Who Turn Out Shoes Are
Skilled Mechanics.

There Is trouble in the big shoe factory
at Is Jessie street, of which William w.
Granville and the Owen Jones estate are the
Teputed owners.
The word ''reputed" is used adyisedly,
for Jones died about three weeks ago, and
II is not known what arrangements have
been made for supplying his place in the
co-partuership.
This Is not the cause of the trouble, how
ever. 1t is no less matter than strike,
which may spread by contagon to the other
big shoe factories aud affect many hundreds
Of men. From Third street TO Jessie street
Is composed largely of shoe factories and
small houses tenanted by the operatives, so
that the voice of the people Is pretty loudly
heard there Just now.
Mr.. Granville was out of town when
CALL reporter visited his residence at 15lh
Valencia street Yesterday. 1t was learned
that lie had gone on a business trip to
Shasta County.
Apparently Mr.. Granville did not think
very seriously of the strike. which was
really inaugurated last Monday; but the
wOTkmen are taking a grave view of the
situation, and predict trouble.
Bere are the simple facts in the case"
said one OF them. There are employed in
the Wholesale shoe manufacturing business
number OF men who are called turner's
4 MY arc 81 ppuStu 70 L6 experts IN Ilelr
trade and to be able to take up the parts of
shoe and turn TIE thing out complete
The usual course is for two of them to work
together, forming what is called a team.
working together in this way the turn
ers have been accustomed to earn from S25
to $40 week for each man.
w nat The Granville & Jones firm now
want IS to reOrganZe this business alto
gether, and instead of the team OF two work
Ing together, to have a laster, stretcher,
heller and bottom fnisher.
one result of this change would be to
reduce the wages Of some of the turner's BY
nearly $50 a week, for men VINO are now
getting from $50 to $40 week Will only be
able TO make about SIS week.
Then, too. the firm want To have all the
Work done on piece al cut of s cents on the
dozen pairs of shoes.
Aud this IS not ALL They have intro
duced a machine Tor welting that will re-
place lot of men who are now doing the
work by hand labor"
These ara the reasons why the strike was
begun last Monday. There are now thirty
I'VE men out.
1t was ascertained that an effort has been
made to compromise the dispute and that
the factory Is still running.
There Is no saying where this thing is
going 10 end, said workman in a neigh
boring shoe factory to the reporter AS a
rule strikes in the shoe trade d 0 moi paw and
some OF them have ended VIEW badly for the
strikers, while in other cases factories have
been closed up by the owners rather than
come TO terms. The turner's" are skilled
men and do not care about seeing their era fl
cut mp and striOu;et, as it were, among a
number OF hands, not one of whom could
60 what a turner can do. 1t looks like hio
pay Tor man to get from $50 to $40 a week.
put II takes years Of practice to enable an
operative 10 do what these teams of turn
ers" can do. The two men really do the
work of four and o II better than four men
ever could, because turning" Is an art in
ltsef. IL Is as If yen tried to run an en-
sihe Win TOUR men instead OF one, each
man having his own idea Of what the result
should be and trying TO carry 1t out in de-
pendently.
',,Snpposing you have all the parts of shoe
before yOu, lhs uppers the sOles the wells
and the inishings ready to hand. you could
NOT 70 10 work and make pair of shoes
without the long years Of practice which
these turner's have given to their work
nat Is the way they look at ct all events.
They say that If the q ange is introduced
lnto one factory il will 90 h ough all OF
them, and the long apprentices hip they have
gone through will be all thrown away.
Ihey are not denying that the pToprietors
CT business have a right 10 cOnduct 1t as
they please In certain sense, but the men
object to being reduced at one stroke from
skilled artisans to mere drudges. To cut
up the turner's teams into four and FIVE
branch trades IS to lower the standard Of
work, cut down wages and inauguTRte
regular MGngOlian school Of labor.
Il don't know what MI Granville is 60
ing 10 do about it. but l DO know that the
other manufacturers are watching things
very closely. II he succeeds in reducing
the standard of production lust for the
sake Of saving a few dollars the other fac
tories will have to follow suit and II is all
we can do now to stand against Eastern
competition. When once il comes to cheap,
Inferior goods we are not in it with the
Eastern makers of leather goods. The only
chance fer the shoe trade here is to keen up
high standard Of white-labor goods and
depend on our people to support us"
We are not organized now" said another
operative. "aDd the chances are that we
will have TO make our fight alone. We
used to have White Labor League. but it
broke up about year and half ago."