The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-07

ments by Chinese and the sweatshops and
tenement factories of the East. This, he
said, was largely due to the indifference
of the general public and cigar-smokers,
who purchase cigars without inquiring
where they were made or by whom they
were made. He introduced w. Macarthur,
who began by reading Byron's apostrophe
/ to cigar. Mr.. Macarthur said:
| All smokers of cigars know the pleasure that
| is 10 be derived from the smoking of good
! cigar and if they Wall only pause to think they
viii find that there is still greater pleasure in
cigar by the knowledge that it is made by a
There is no political feature in the trades
union movement. 1t Is simply matter OF
economic protection, an enlargement OF the
family relations, as it were. You viii find in
trades unions men of all political parties and
ali religious ereeds, but they are unit when it
comes 10 a matter that concerns any particular
craft or trade. 1 consider that the cigar
makers are in the front rank of trades-union-
ism. 1 believe that when the people on the
Pacific Coast fully understand this question
! they win call for a white-labor cigar when they
want cigar. The cause of the cigar-makers is
| a just and noble one.
T. T. Burns, president OF the California
| State Blue Label League, was the next
speaker. He began by reviewing the cigar
| business in California, its product and con-
sumption, as already published in the
| CALL. In the course of his speech Mr..
/ Burns said:
Last week another cigar-maker and visited
/ the locality where most of the cigars sold are
| consumed by business men, also a locality
patronized almost exclusively by workingmen.
! We found that among the business men a Cali
! fornia-made cigar is practically boycotted. On
! the other hand, where the trade is mostly with
workingmen, the California white labor cigars
were found to be in the majority. This is
something strong which we can throw in the
teeth OF the men who cry loudest for home
patronage of home products. What we ask OF
! the public is to help the white cigar-makers
| without mourning any additional expense
! whatever, but rather to secure cleaner and
| better article for the same money. 1t is q we'll
known fact that the trashiest cigars of the
East-cigars that cannot find market there
are shipped to the Pacific Coast.
could give you the names of five or six cigar
manufacturers in San Francisco who employ
three or four white men as blind and thereby
| pretend TO run white labor factories. With
these three or four white men to each factory,
each factory disposes of the product OF at least
| $50 men. The extra LAG are Cinnamon. These
manufacturers impose ON the public by claim
! ing the preference due white labor. But as
| they are nothing more or less than sweatshops
they cannot get the union label and the
| absence OF this is sure sign that the cigar is
either OF Chinese or tenement-house make. II
the public viii assist us we will do away with
| this system within six months.
| At this moment M. McGlynn entered the
hall and was introduced. He wanted to
know if any of the speakers who had pre-
coded him while he was absent had con-
demned @. P. Huntington and the South
ern Pacific Company because of the decline
of the cigar industry of San Francisco. If
not he wanted to skip it, too. He said:
! doubt if this mass-meeting will cause the
| sale of 100, 900 more White-labor cigars in San
| Francisco during the next week. All the mass
meetings that might be held between this and
doom S day viii not solve this problem. Trades
union men cannot do it all, for there are only
about 10000 of them in this City. But if all
the white smokers of cigars would call for
Pacific Coast label cigars the question would
very soon be settled. A few thousand dollars
1udtciously expended. in advertising by the
union employers would work wonders. Adyer-
! Using paid for by Eastern money is what sells
! scab cigars in San Francisco.
wish we could import for short time about
| twenty hustling cigar bosses from the East
men who know that successful cigars are made
! up Oh three ingredients, namely, tobacco, COM
mon sense and printers ink.
John Gelder of Oakland amused himself
and the audience by abusing the manu-
1acturers OF San Francisco and the Half
million Club.
Mr.. Representative of the Half-million
Club" he said, "before you bring your
hundreds OF thousands more people here
you had better lind employment for your
unemployed. Quit smoking the cigars
made in the New York sweat-shops and
tenements and in the Chinese dens of this
City and buy the cigars made by white
union labor instead. By so doing you will
be OF some use to the community in which
you live
J. K. Rogers requested every one TO rise
and join in singing America while the
band played, and the meeting adjourned.