The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-11-23
JOURNAL. = VICTORY
Six Hundred Men Thrown
Out Of Work at the
Sugar House This
Evening.
REFINERY TOCLOSE DOWN
When the Raw Material on
Hand Is Worked Up, the
Remaining Five Hun
dred Must Go.
COMPLETE ST0PpAGE ABOUT FRIDAY
Company Has No Permanent Idea
of Leaving Jersey City--Will
Just Take Rest.
OFFICIALS REFUSE TO TALK
But There Is No Doubt That the
Move Is the Result of the
Water Rent Dispute.
OFFICIALS REFUSE TO TALK
But There Is No Doubt That the
Move Is the Result of the
Water Rent Dispute.

When the six o'clock whistle blows to-
night COO Of the LOO men employed in
The Refinery of the American Sugar Re
fining Company in this city will have
done their last piece of work for some
time. They received word this afternoon
that they would be laid off and need not
report for work tomorrow.
This news is received from a reliable
source and although none of the employees
in the office of the company will con-
f1rm it, and Mr.. Matthiessen and Mr..
Niese refuse to be seen, it is declared
: to be authentic All inquiry made at the
Office has merely ELECTED the Following la
comic answer.-"You can get no infor-
nation here. We have nothing to add to
what Mr.. Matthiessen said yesterday"
M Matthiessen said yesterday that the
sugar refineries in this city would close
down this week and the action of Mr..
today is in keeping with this printed ut
terance.
The men who are laid off are employed
in handling the raw material up to the
point where 1t is dumped into the huge
watts in which it is boiled. They are known
as melting pan men" BY tonight they
which has been received at the sugar
house here and no more shipments will
be received.
the 500 other men who are employed in
the works. and who handle the mate
rial from the time 1t leaves the boiling
watts until it is shipped from the build
irg, will be engaged until Thursday or
Friday in working to its refined state
the material already in hand. Then,
they. too, will be laid off and the doors
of the refineries will be closed.
BY this act over 1000 families will have
their principal, and in somes cases their
sole, means of support taken away from
them There is but little prospect of
many of the men securing other employ
ment The majority of them are un-
skilled laborers and to make matters
worse large proportion of them are for
eigners and are not over familiar with the
English language. They are a rough class
and, thrown out of employment and rem
dered desperate through want, they are
apt to afford pretty knotty problem for
the city's officials to solve before the
winter is over. Many of the men who
are now working in the sugar house Sc
cured employment there this summer,
after being driven by oppression from the
mines of Pennsylvania.
If suffering and want result from the
closing down of the refinery, as it surely
will If the Sugar Trust magnates adhere
to their present determination to keep the
place closed, it will be confined for the
most part to one locality as most of the
employees of the refinery are colonized in
the Section of the city south of Grand
cruited for the most part from among the
Polish population. IT, on the other hand,
the sugar magnates should open another
refinery in some other city and provide
for some of the LOO men it will lay off
here, that section of the city in which
they live will be almost depopulated and
real estate values will be seriously af-
fected.
This is said to be the first time in
eighteen years that the sugar house has
closed down. The news of the action of
the managers has caused mild conster-
nation among business men in general
1t is not for moment thought that the
company has any intention of abandoning
the property and it is believed the plant
will be kept in order for the resumption
of business as soon as the pending dis.
pute between the officials of the company
and the city are adjusted. This, however,
naayssnot be for months, and those who
benefit either directly or indirectly by
the operation of the immense industry
have good cause for present alarm.
From gentleman who is in a position.
to know, from the inside, the doings of
the Sugar Trust 1t was learned this af
ternoon that prior to the dispute over.