The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-11-17

company and the Howe company will
have to be cancelled, and it is expected
that they will go to Isaac Prouty &
Co., and Erastus Jones & Co., of Spen-
Ger.
At the Howe shops today it was pay
day, and thus about $500 was placed i'll
circulation throughout the city. The
pay roll contained about 400 names.
Tomorrow will be pay day at the Rice
& Hutchins shops, and Friday at John
A. Fryes shops.
In the main shop Of the Howe COM
pany the power was not running this
afternoon, but at some of the other
Howe shops the power was kept up. At
the Frye shop it was kept up to run
the tannery connected with the factory
and at the Getting avenue factory of
the Rice & Hutchins company it was
kept up for the sake of appearances.
Mrs. Robert Henderson, the fore
woman whose conduct caused the
strike in the Middlesex factory, is still
working In that shop. The Howe COM
pany's employees received pay for one
week only, and have q. little due them
for what was done before the strike
was called this week..
General Secretary Horace Eaton was
in town today and spent some time in
consultation with the labor leaders at
labor headquarters. Seen afterwards,
Mr.. Eaton said that the object of his
visit was simply to keep in touch with
affairs in Marlboro. In speaking OF the
admission on the part of two large
manufacturers contained in interviews
printed exclusively In this morning $
Spy, Mr.. Eaton said: II am sure l don t
know what it means. Perhaps they
have some proposition to submit"
Asked If such a proposition would be
considered, he replied: 'If it recog-
nizes the organization, yes.
what if it recognizes the organlza-
ton and calls for cut in wages
asked The Spy man.
1--WE should have to consider it, said
Mr. Eaton; anything that recognizes
the organization. But let them recog-
nize the organization before they at
tempt to talk business The executive
committee held a meeting tonight.
The following statement was issued:
The executive committee express
themselves freely in regard to pub
lished interview with Mr.. Howe, in
which he states at length his alleged
difficulty in selling goods in COMPETE
ton with other prices. They say MIR.
Howe used the same illustration of cost
price, 80 cents o. a shoe, and So cents
on his competito. goods, in 1893, when
Mr.. Howe asked for a 10 per cent reduc-
ton and said on a public platform in
our hall that unless he got 1t, he would
be unable to do business. They assert
1t to be common knowledge, and admit
ted by Mr. Howe that the following two
years were the most successful of his
career.
In view of this remarkable success
upon an unsuccessful request for reduc-
ton in wages the strikers feel that it
is entirely possible that Mr.. Howe may
be mistaken now. AS especial reasons
for taking this view of the case they as
sert that in 1893 the country was in the
throes of financial panic while at the
present time the country has expert
enced two years Of prosperity since the
election Of President Mckinley, and
prominent men on all sides are freely
predicting further increased prosperity
as a result of the recent elections with
a further boom in all industries incident
10 the termination of the late war with
Spain.
They say that if Mr.. Howe's illustra-
ton as to equaMzing wages between the
So man and the 81 man be at all ac-
curate, then Mr.. Howe should meet
them upon the basis of arbitration, and
they further suggest that the statistics
of the earnings of shoe workers as pub
lished by the state and nation should be
raised to include the wages stated by
Mr.. Howe, and thus raise the average
The committee regret Mr.. Howe's