The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-28
A BLUFF.
Proposition So
Considered.
LOCATIONS PLENTY
For Marlboro Shoe Men if
They Come.

The statement given out by the MARI
boro shoe manufacturers of their in
tention to remove to this city as a
more favorable field for the production
of shoes and the development of the
shoe industry, has caused some dis
cussion among the members of the
Board of Trade in this city, who are
ever anxious to add to the present little
industrial world that is now thriving in
Worcester, and the matter has been
brought to the attention of Chairman
William Hart of the committee ON new
enterprises of the Board of Trade.
When seen yesterday, Parks Commits
sioner Hart acknowledged that the sub
! ject had been considered, but would
state nothing as to what conferences
with the Marlboro manufacturers had
been held or what action might be TAX
en- to make the local field still more
alluring to the prospective manufac-
turers. Some members of the board
talked together yesterday, and whlle
there has been no meeting of the COM
mittee or any action taken toward
such a meeting, they believed that the
intimation sent out from Rice &
Hutchins was a mere bluff to hasten an
agreement between the strikers and the
manufacturers, or to force upon the
, shoe workers, or idlers Of the city
as they are now, the fear that the
large industries are to move else
where.
Whatever intent the manufacturers
may have had behind their visit to
Worcester and their discussion of open
ings for their plants here, it has failed
to influence the workingmen, and the
blutr has been called. The cost of NOV
ing the plant equipment to this city
would be large, and then the concerns
would meet with the same opposition
in Worcester from organized labor as
they have in Marlboro. The boot and
shoe organizations here are strong, and
in the two last shoe troubles the unions
have come out victorious, as they
claim. However, the manufacturers
are becoming fatigued with the dull
ness of strike times and seek to re-
sumo business, somehow, somewhere.
a member of the Board of Trade who
is in the closest touch with the opera
tons of the board, said yesterday anent
the prospect of the Marlboro manufac-
turers endeavoring to find an opening in
this city, that never before in a hong
series Of years had there been so few
vacant plants as today. There are, how
ever, in this city, according to his stare
ment, a few industrial buildings which
dlIOI0 Lull opportunity LOT new concerns
to locate here, and which offer specially
advantageous facilities to the boot and
shoe trade.
The old plant of the Windle Bicycle
Company on Chandler street, which dis
appeared from this city on the flood
tide of the cycle trade, is constructed so
as to be adapted to the shoe indus
try, as is also the Stark plant on
Chandler, from which the last ship
ments of stock are being made There
is plenty Of room in the old Waverly
school shoe building, which has most
central situation and then one of the
largest and most capacious buildings of
all is the Sargent building, opposite the
Rice & Griffin plant on Southbridge
street. This building is devoted in part
to storage purposes but it has long
been on the Board of Trades list of de-
sirable locations for new industries.
To visitor who gets his first impress
sion of the industrial situation of the
city, his view of the staring and vacant
Sargent building from the Boston &
Albany road causes the opinion that
Worcester is more or less deserted, until
this opinion is changed by actual know
ledge of the city. But in spite of this
first possible impression Worcester
never had so few unoccupied manufac-
turing plants as in the present year of
expansion. However, the Board of
Trade always has room for good indus
tries and with the Marlboro manufac-
turers in search of new location, Wor-
cester will receive their first attention.