The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-19

tractors were making a determined
drive against former Manager John H.
Bowker and that a part of the new
agreement was that Mr.. Bowker should
be asked for his resignation as business
manager and secretary of the union.
AS a matter of fact, according to the
statement of the same gentleman, Mr..
Bowker rendered his resignation as
manager of the union the day after
his election as city auditor of Worces-
ter' Although the directors of the
union have refused to act on this reslg-
nation, Mr., Bowker has severed all
active connection with the union ana
has no position to resign, either Volun-
tarily or otherwise.
The Spy mans informant declared
that the contractors had never forgiven
the union for its choice of Mr.. BoWker
as business manager, assigning as the
cause for this hard feeling that Bowker
had done more to disturb the condition
of the milk market in Boston than any
other man ever chosen by the union for
the office of business manager.
In this connection, stated the milk
producer, it was for the interest of the
farmer to note the changed conditions
of the milk market during the past 10
years from the producers point of
view. In 1889 when the first serious
trouble between producer and con-
tractor arose, the producers We're get
ting 80 cents per cent for their milk at
Boston, and the contractors We're car
rYing 10 per cent of the surplus. BY
the decision of the state board of ar
bitTation and Cancellation, to whom the
matter of surplus was referred in 1899
this was a fair amount of the surplus
for the contractor to carry. 1t was car
ried, however, for only the six months
for which the agreement held.
For the next period of six months ano
| thereafter for several years the con-
tractors carried only 10 per cent of the
sales of milk as surplus, instead of 1C
per cent of the gross receipts, as de-
creed by the state board. No vote by
| the directors of the milk union is on
record as agreeing to this change and
none of the older members of the union
remember anything about it except
that it was one Of the arbitrary meas
ures of the contractors from which the
producer has never recovered.
But 10 per cent of the sales was too
much for the contractors, and the next
drive was to split in twain the amount
of surplus carried. Only per cent
would they carry, and the union in its
numerical and financial weakness, was
obliged to submit.
Again, in 1896, with the producers
union at its lowest ebb in point OF
members and amount of money in the
treasury, another drive was made by
the contractors. This was the reduc-
ton in the price of milk at the Boston
market from So to 80 cents per can.
| The howl of indignation that went
up all over New England when this
cut was announced was allowed by the
reorganization of the union. and for a
! time quite a fight was made to get the
price back. 1t availed nothing, and
1 through the half-heartedness Of the
majority of the milk producers who
! backed out of strike that seemed inn
minent year ago, the several drives
at the producers price have been fol
lowed further by the reduction of the
surplus from to 21a per cent
The Spy mans informant declared IN
closing his conversation that before
another year went by, the farmers
would be obliged to carry all Of the
surplus, and sooner or later would sub
init to another cut in the Boston price
for milk by the can. Then, and no
till then" he declared with emphasis
will the producers realize the useless
ness of compromising with the con
tractors"